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OF 

P^XTOISr; 

OR THE 

EXERCISES OF THE 

HUNDKEDTH ANNIVERSARY 

OF THE 

INCORPORATION OF THE TOWN ; 

INCLUDING A 

HISTORICAL ADDRESS, 

BY 

GEORGE W. LIVERMORE, ESQ., OF CAMBRIDGE; 

A]V OR ATIOW 

BY REV. JOHN F. BIGELOW, D.D., OF KEESYILLE, N. Y. ; 

A PO E M 

BY MR. GEORGE GARDNER PHIPPS, OF PAXTON ; 

AND OTHER EXBRCISES UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 

GEORGE N. BIGELOW, ESQ., OF FRAMINGHAM, 

PRESIDENT OF THE DAY. 



THE CELEBRATION OCCURRED, JUNE 14, 1865. 



WORCESTER 
PRINTED BY EDWARD R. FISKE & SON. 



(^ 1868. 9 

^^^ — — ^^ 



\\i^y^- 



BBtBttary HlBmarial 



OF 



OR THE 

EXERCISES OF THE 

HUNDREDTH MNIVEKSAEY 

OF THE 

INCOEPORATIO^ OF THE TOWF ; 

INCLUDING A 

HISTORICAL ADDRESS, 



GEORGE W. LIVERMORE, ESQ., OF CAMBRIDGE. 



AN ORATIOIV 

BY REV. JOHN F. BIGELOW, D.D., OF KEESVILLE, N. Y. : 

A PO JE M 

BY MR. GEORGE GARDNER PHIPPS, OF PAXTON ; 

AND OTHER EXERCISES UNDER THE DIRECTION OP 

EORGE N. BIGELOW, ESQ., OF FRAMINGHAM, 

PRESIDENT OF THE DAY. 



THE CELEBRATION OCCURRED, JUNE 14, 1865, 



WORCESTER: 
PRINTED BY EDWARD R. FISKE & SON. 

1868. 



'O 



,T2'n3' 



I 0. 



PAXTON CENTENNIAL 



INTEODUCTIOF 



The Centennial anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Paxioii, was 
celebrated on the fourteenth day of June, A. D. 18G5, with ceremonies interest- 
ing and appropriate to the occasion. Not only the greater part of the inhabi- 
tants of the town were brought together, but many also from abroad, who 
claimed relationship by birth or lineage. 

The exercises which occupied the greater part of the day, were admirably con- 
ducted, and the most pleasant impressions seem to have been left on the vast 
gathering of the sons and daughters of the town. 

The exercises of the forenoon were held in the Congregational Church, to 
which the guests and citizens were escorted at a seasonable nour, by the Lei- 
cester Band. The exercises in the Church were as follows. 
VOLUNTARY UPON THE ORGAN; 
PRAYER BY Rev. William Phipps ; 
ANTHEM BY THE CHOIR. 
HISTORICAL ADDRESS, by Hon. George W. Livermore, 

of Cambridge. 
CENTENNIAL SONG, Written for the occasion. 
ORATION, BY Rev. JoHxV F. Bigelow, D. D. of Keesville, N. Y. 
ANTHEM, by the Choir. 

After these exercises, the audience adjourned to ihe Common, where a sump- 
tuous dinner had been provided for nearly four hundred persons. Everything 
here was tastefully, and comfortably arranged in a large and beautiful booth, 
through whose covering of green boughs from the forest, the tinted light and 
the balmy air of one of June's most delightful days, were admitted. 

Following the dinner, many short and spirited speeches were given, and the 
time was closely occupied till between five and six o'clock, when the celebra- 
tion was closed, by the singing of " Auld Lang Syne " by the whole assembly. 
Songs by the Paxton Glee Club, and music by the Leicester Band, were very 
pleasantly interspersed with the other exercises of the afternoon. The Poem and 
the Sentiments prepared for the occasion, by the Toast Master, Mr. Creorge G. 
Phipps, will be found in their place. 

A most important interest to the whole occasion was given by the genial and 
accomplished manner, the graceful speeches, and the brilliant wit, of the Pres- 
ident of the day, George N. Bigeloio Esq., of Framingham. 



ADDRESS. 



LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, NATIVES AND CITIZENS 
OF PAXTON : — 

An absence of almost half a century has deprived me of 
citizenship, but not of a feeling of interest in the place of 
my nativity ; for time and distance cannot make me forget 
that my grand-parents were among the early settlers of this 
town — that here they dwelt through a long life, reared 
a numerous familj^, participated in its municipal affairs^ 
took an active part in the event which we commemorate 
this day, and that their remains now rest in yonder church- 
yard. That here my father was born and lived more than 
four score years, an active member of this community, and 
that his body, with that of my honored mother, are tenants 
of the same mansion of the dead ; that here I first saw the 
light, spent the halcyon days of childhood and youth, first 
enjoyed the pleasures of social intercourse with my fellows 
whose homes were here. 



Alas ! where are those late companions now ? Some, like 
myself, have emigrated, many have gone to the eternal 
world, a few remain, but so changed by time that I cannot 
recognize in them my former playmates. When I look 
around and see none but strange faces, the mutability of 
form and the brevity of life become painfully apparent ; the 
bloom and vigor of youth supplanted by the hoar and im- 
becility of age, infants and children become parents and 
grand-parents, tottering upon the verge of eternity, are inci- 
dents which force the reflection upon the mind, that prob- 
ably not one, not only of this assembly, but of the hundreds 
of millions that now people the earth, will live until the 
advent of a second centennial anniversary of the incorpora- 
tion of this town. They will all have passed away, and 
their places will be filled by billions yet unborn. 

But I see change has not been idle in regard to other 
things ; roads have been discontinued and altered, new 
ones located and opened, " The crooked made straight, and 
the rough places smooth ; " old buildings have been demol- 
ished and many new structures erected on their sites and 
vacant lots ; and even this centenary church "^ has been 
rejuvenated by the plastic hand of change ; formerly a plain, 
square structure, standing in the middle of the common, in 
primitive simplicity, without dome or spire, destitute of 
external ornament and internal embellishments, its prom- 
inent sounding-board above, and its deacon seat and semi- 
circular communion table at the base of the pulpit; its 
uncarpeted aisles and pen-like pews, with their uncushioned 
and hinged seats, to be turned up and let down at the rising 



* The Meeting-House, in which the address was delivered, was built during 
the years 1765 and 1766 ; but moved back, repaired and remodeled, a steeple 
added, and the whole exterior and interior modernized in the year 1835. 



and sitting of their occupants with a clatter sufficient to 
have awakened a Rip Van Winkle ; its negro seats in the 
rear of the front gallery, and the old people's in front of 
the pulpit, for the use of the deaf; its two corner pews 
perched aloft over the galler^^' staircases, 

Through which, and the scuttles above, were the ways 
To the attic, the arsenal of those early days : 

has now fallen hack from its conspicuous locality to the site 
of its former horse-sheds ; rearing its steepled head in all 
the grandeur and assurance of modern renovation. 

What changes will take place in the next coming hundred 
years, not only in this town, hut in the world around, lie 
beyond the broad sphere of conjecture ; but judging the 
future from the past, they will be many and great. Less 
than two-and-a-half centuries ago our present enlightened 
and populous Commonwealth, a model to the world of in- 
dustry, intelligence and national thrift and greatness, was 
a wilderness, covered with primeval forests, the gloomy 
haunts of savages and wild beasts, literally the domain of 
barbarism. * 

In 1620 our pilgrim fathers, driven by persecution and 
oppression from their native land, sought an asylum in the 
wilds of America, and landed on the inhospitable shores of 
Kew England, preferring liberty of conscience and self- 
government, coupled with all the hardships, the privations 
and perils incident to colonizing the New World, to the 
domestic conveniences and comforts of homes in the Old, 
conjoined with its intolerance and tyranny ; purposing to 
found a commonwealth upon the basis of civil and religious 
liberty, where they and their posterity might enjoy these 
inestimable, blessings. To this end, before leaving the 



Mayflower, they drew up and signed that memorable com- 
pact, which enunciated the vital principles set forth, more 
than a century and a half afterward, in the preambles of our 
state and national constitutions. It is so clear and emphatic 
I cannot forbear repeating it : They say, " We do by these 
presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and 
one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into 
a civil body politic for our better ordering and preservation, 
and the furtherance of the ends aforesaid ; and by virtue 
hereof, to enact, constitute, establish and form such just and 
equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from 
time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient 
for the general good of the colony." Here we find the germ 
of our American Liberty Tree, thus planted by our fore- 
fathers, which was subsequently nurtured by the blood and 
treasure of their descendants, and now stretches its branches 
from the shores of the A.tlantic to those of the Pacific, giv- 
ing shelter and protection to more than thirty-one millions 
of freemen. 

It was considered that this compact embraced no more 
immunities nor greater rights than was conferred by the 
charter of the Plymouth, and subsequently by that of the 
MassachusettSj'Colony, under which the emigrants organized 
their respective colonial governments that continued until 
these colonies were erected into the province of Massachu- 
setts Bay, in the year 1692. 

This union, with the changes made at that time in the 
provisions of the colonial charters, was the first overt in- 
fringement made by the British Government upon American 
liberty, and was the initial one of a series that eventuated 
in the dismemberment of the Colonies from the Mother 
Country, and the establishment of our glorious Republic. 



9 

Under the colonial charters the people elected all the 
officers of government, while the provincial gave to the 
Grown the appointment of the Governor, the Deputy Gov- 
ernor and Secretary ; the freeholders electing the Coun- 
sellors and House of Representatives, each town having the 
right to send two delegates to the General Court, which was 
composed of the Governor and Council and House of Ee- 
presentatives, and was to be convened annually on the last 
Wednesday of May, and at such other times as the Gover- 
nor might see fit to call them together.* 

The Pilgrims and the Puritans, although under distinct 
governments until they were erected into a province were 
united in their efforts to extend the bourn of civilization, 
and to build up a commonwealth, based upon the principles 
of self-government and equal rights ; which should be as 
enduring and stable as the Rock of the one and the Tri- 
mountains of the other. History and experience both 
furnish incontestable proof that their efforts, thus far, have 
been eminently successful, notwithstanding the magnitude 
and difficulties of their laudable undertaking. 

The Plymouth, in seventy-two years from the time of its 
first settlement, increased from one hundred to at least seven 
thousand souls, inhabiting seventeen towns ; and the Massa- 
chusetts, in sixty-six years, had established fifty-five towns, 
havino^ a population of about forty thousand. 

This great progress was the result of a strict adherence to 
the principles of their civil and ecclesiastical polity, based 



* This continued to be the commencement of the political year until altered 
by an amendment of the Constitution, adopted by the people on the eleventh 
day of May, A. D. 1831 ; by which it was changed to the first Wednesday of 
January 5 thus abolishing forever in Massachusetts a holiday, time honored, 
loved, and observed during almost a century and a half. 

2 



10 

upon the doctrines of Christianity. Hence, they exting- 
uished the titles of the Indians to the lands in the interior 
by purchase and not by conquest, and in all cases made pro- 
vision for the establishment and support of the gospel and 
schools. 

Notwithstanding the great progress that had been made 
in the settlement of the country, immense tracts of land 
remained in the possession of the aborigines near the end 
of the seventeenth century. In conformity with the policy 
of our forefathers, on the twenty-seventh day of January, 
A. D. 1686, Colonel Joshua Lamb, of Roxbury, and others 
purchased of certain Indians a tract of land eight miles 
square, called Towtaid, lying near Worcester ; which pur- 
chase was confirmed by an order of the General Court, 
passed on the fifteenth day of February, A. D. 1713, on condi- 
tion that within " seven years time fifty families settle 
themselves in as defensible and regular a way as the circum- 
stances of the place will allow on part of said land ; and 
that a sufficient quantity thereof be reserved for a gospel 

ministry there and a school The town to be named 

Leicester and to belong to the county of Middlesex." This 
tract embraced the present towns of Leicester, Spencer, a 
part of Auburn and about two miles in width of the south- 
erly part of Paxton. 

On the twenty-second day of December, A. D. 1686, 
Henry Willard and four others bought of certain other 
Indians another tract of land twelve miles square, called 
Naquag, or l!^aqueag, embracing the present towns of Rut- 
land, Oakham, Barre, Ilubbardston, Princeton, and about 
two miles in width of the northerly part of Paxton. On 
the twenty-third day of February, A. J). 1713, this tract was 
confirmed to the sons and grandsons of the late Major 



11 

Simon WiJlard, of Lancaster, and others * ; '^ on condition 
that within seven years time there be sixty families settled 
thereon, and sufficient lands be reserved for a gospel min- 
istry and schools." " The town to be called Rut- 
land and to lie in the county of Middlesex." The proprie- 
tors voted at Boston, in December, A. D. 1715, *' That the 
contents of six miles square be surveyed and set off for the 
settlement of sixty-two families in order to the performance 
of the condition of the grant." This territory is what 
constitutes the town of Rutland, The requisite number of 
settlers having been obtained, the proprietors confirmed this 
grant ; and at a meeting of the freeholders and other 
inhabitants of this six miles square, held on the ninth day 
of October, A. D. 1721, it was " voted to prefer a petition 
to the General Court to give their sanction, and to establish 
them as a town, to have and enjoy all the privileges other 
towns enjoy." The prayer of this petition was granted in 
May, A. D. 1722; and under authority of the General Court 
Captain Samuel Wright called the first town meeting, at 
which the town was organized by the choice of its proper 
officers. This meeting was holden on the last Monday of 
July, A. D. 1722. 



^ This was the celebrated Major Willard, who in A. D. 1675 went to the 
relief of Brookfield when attacked and finally destroyed by the Nipnet or Nip- 
muck Indians ; who, according to Hutchinson, were located ^' On rivers and 
lakes, or large ponds where Oxford now is and towns near it." 

Major Willard had been sent (by the General Court) after some Indians 
westward of Lancaster and Groton ; but hearing of the attack on Brookfield, 
marched with Captain Parker and forty-six men to its relief ; and was after- 
wards censured and cashiered for disobedience to orders, says Doctor Fiske, 
which act of the Government " disgusted his friends and broke his heart." — 
Fiske^s Sermon, Dec. 81, 1775. 



12 

About two miles in width of the southerly part of Kut- 
land, as thus established, now constitutes the northerly part 
of Paxton.* 

As the prime object of the founders of Massachusetts, 
was civil and religious liberty, they, and their descendants, 
in all their movements touching the settlement of the coun- 
try, and the establishment and construction of its municipal- 
ities and institutions, care was taken to provide for the 
support of " the Gospel Ministry, and Schools ; believing, 
and truly, Christianity and learning to be the only sure 
foundations and pillars of republican government and insti- 
tutions, and the perpetuity of democratic power.f 

Hence the first public act of almost every district and 
town in the county, was to erect a meeting house, and 
settle a minister ; religion and its ordinances being the 
alpha and omega of those stern pioneers of freedom ; and 
whatever interfered with, or hindered their enjoyment of 
the public and social worship of their God, was deemed a 
serious evil, and they spared no pains or expense for its 
removal. 

Meeting Houses had been built in Leicester and Rutland, 
standing near the sites of the present Congregational 
Churches in those towns ; and a road opened leading from the 
one to the other, as early as A. D. 1721. This road, as appears 
on a plan of the District of Paxton, now in the Secretary's 



* A part of Holden was annexed to Paxton, February 13th 1804, also, April 
9th., 1839 : and a part of the southwesterly part of Rutland was annexed to 
Paxton, and the line between the towns altered in some other parts by the 
Legislature, May 24th., 1851, and February 20th., 1829. 



t See Provincial law passed in the year 1792 : Ancient Charters and laws 
of Mass., page 243. 



13 

office in Boston ; * passed throuoch the town to the east of 
its centre. 

The first settlers of Paxton, were located on the outskirts 
of Leicester and Rutland, and many of them remote from 
this road; which was reached only by paths through the 
woods and fields ; consequently, they were subjected to 
great inconvenience in attending public meetings, in either 
of those towns ; and therefore desired to become a distinct 
municipality, in order to be authorised to build a " meeting 
house " easier of access, than w^ere those in Leicester, or 
Rutland.f To this end as early as A. D. 1761, a petition was 
presented to the General Court, by the inhabitants of the 
southerly part of Rutland, and the northerly part of Lei- 
cester, praying to be incorporated into a distinct munici- 
pality ; assigning as a reason, " the great difficulties they 
labor under in attending public worship, by reason of the 
great distance they were from its places in the towns to 



* See vol. 4, Map or page 19. 



fSee Colonial law A. D. 1679, Section 20. "For as much as it hath too 
often happened that through differences arising in several towns, and other 
pretenses, there hath been attempts by some persons to erect new meeting 
houses, although on pretense of public worship of God on the Lord's days, yet 
thereby laying a foundation (if not for schism and seduction, to errors and her- 
eses,) for perpetrating divisions, and weakening such places where they dwell 
in the comfortable enjoyment of the ministry, orderly settled amongst them. 
For prevention whereof for the future, it is ordered by this Court, and by the 
authority thereof, that no person whatsoever without the consent of the freemen 
of the town where they live, first orderly had and obtained at a public meeting 
assembled at that end, and licence obtained to the County Court : or in defeat 
of such consent and license, by the order of the General Court, shall erect or 
make use of any house as aforesaid ; and in case any person or persons shall 
be convicted of transgressing this law, every such house or houses, wherein 
such persons shall so meet more than three times, with the land whereon such 
house or houses stand, and all private ways leading thereto, shall be forfeited 
to the use of the County, and disposed of by the county treasurer by sale or 
demolishing, as the Court that gives judgment in the case shall order." 



14 

whicli they belong." This petition having been dismissed, 
they presented another similar one, headed by Jeremiah 
Howe, of Leicester, in A. D. 1762, which was also dismissed. 
Not disheartened by their former ill success, but encouraged 
by the parable of the unjust judge, and importunate widow, 
they made a third application, assigning similar reasons 
with the additional one, " that the land prayed for in Lei- 
cester, was set off by a town vote, for the ends proposed, at 
a town meeting held on the sixteenth day of May A. D. 1763. 
This petition was presented to the General Court the same 
year, and an order of notice, was served on the town of 
Eutland, who objected to granting the prayer thereof, and 
it was dismissed on the thirty first day of December A. D. 
1763. * 

* The following is a copy of the petition, upon which the vote of the town of 
Leicester was passed. 

To the selectmen of the town of Leicester, and the other inhabitants of the 
same. The petition, and desire of the subscribers hereof, humbly showeth — 
That whereas in the government of Divine Providence, our habitations are at a 
great distaiice from the place of public worship in this town, which, together 
with the snow, and moisture of the land, it is exceedingly difficult a great part 
of the year, to attend on the public worship of God in this town ; We look upon 
it as our bounden duty to endeavour to set up the Gospel among us, by which 
we, with our families might more constantly enjoy the means of grace. 

In order to accomplish the good end of setting up the Gospel, we propose, if 
possible to obtain leave so to do, to erect a town, or district between the towns 
of Leicester and Rutland, by taking two miles off each town, to make up the 
contents of four miles square. Wherefore your petitioners, humbly and ear- 
nestly desire, that for the good end above proposed, you would now set off by a 
vote of this town, two miles at the north end of this town, the lands with the 
inhabitants thereon, to be laid out, and connected with the south part of Rut- 
land that is adjoining the same, to be erected into a town or district, by order 
of the Great and General Court of this province, as soon as may be, that we 
may set up a Congregational Church, and settle a gospel minister, according to 
the constitution of the churches in the land; which we judge will be for the 
advancement of religion, and our comfort, if it be obtained in the way of peace. 
So wishing you health and peace, as in duty bound, we subscribe your peti- 
tioners : Leicester, May 13th., 17G3. Oliver Witt, Timo. Barrett, Abraham 



15 

l^otwitb Stan ding the discouragements of a triple failure, 
these petitioners presented still another petition to the Gen- 
eral Court, for an act of incorporation, signed by " Oliver 
"Witt and others, inhabitants, some of them of Leicester, 
others of Rutland, setting forth the great difficulties they 
labour under by living at such a distance from the place of 
public worship in the several towns to which they belong, 
none of them living less than three miles distant, one only 
excepted, and some of them four, and many of them five 
miles distant, and the way bad ; and praying that they 
may be erected into a distinct town, or district, or pre- 
cinct, by certain bounds in said petition mentioned ; " " it 
was ordered that Jedediah Foster, of Brookfield, and Col. 
Williams, on the part of the House, and Benjamin Lincoln, 
of the Council be a committee, in the recess of this Court to 
repair to the place petitioned for, to be erected into a parish 
at the charge of the petitioners, and that they hear all 
parties interested for and against said corporation, and 
report at the next session whether the prayer thereof should 
be granted." This committee reported in favor on the 23d., 
of January 1765 ; and a bill entitled "an act for incorpora- 
ting the southerly part of Rutland, and the northerly part 
of Leicester in the county of Worcester, into a district by 
the name of Paxton, passed both branches of the Legisla- 
ture to be enacted ; and of the twelfth day of February, 
Anno Regni Georgii Tertii, Quinto 1765, was approved by 
the Governor Francis Bernard, and Paxton was authorized 
to take its place among the incorporated municipalities of 
the Commonwealth, vested with all the powers, privileges 



Smith, Abner Morse, James Thompson, William Thompson Jr., William 
Thompson, Abijah Bemis, Daniel Snow Jr., James Nichol, Jason Livermore, 
Isaac Bellows, Nathan Livermore, Daniel Steward. 



16 

and immunities which with the inhabitants of any town in 
this Province, do, or by law ought to enjoy, excepting only, 
the privilege of sending a representative to the General As- 
sembly." The charter gave them the right to join with the 
town of Leicester, and the Precinct of Spencer, in choosing 
representatives to the General Court. 

John Murry Esq., of Rutland, was authorized to call the 
first meeting of the inhabitants to choose the-proper District 
ofiicers. That meeting was warned by Phineas Moore, and 
was held at the house of Mr. John Snow, on the eleventh 
day of March, in the year Seventeen hundred and sixty-five, 
when and where the proper ofiicers were chosen, and the 
District was duly organized. 

On the first day of April, A. D. 1765, and only twenty days 
after its organization, the district held a meeting, and voted 
to build a Meeting House ; and at subsequent meetings 
during the year arrangements were made for carrying that 
vote into efiiect ; a committee was chosen and the sum of 
thirteen pounds six shillings and eight pence was appropri- 
ated " for the purpose of procuring the Gospel to be preached 
in the place during the winter." The Meeting House was 
raised and partly finished that year, and a further appropria- 
tion was made for preaching. 

Notwithstanding this prompt action in relation to the 
establishment of the public worship of God, more than two 
years elapsed before the Congregational Church was organ- 
ized and a pastor settled. The Church Covenant is dated 
September 3d. A. D. 1767 ; and was signed by Phineas Moore, 
John Snow, Jason Livermore, David Davis, Benjamin 
Sweetser, Silas Biglow, (the pastor elect) Samuel Mann, 
Oliver Witt, Stephen Barrett, and Samuel Brown. 



17 

This delay was probably occasioned, at least in some de- 
gree, as I have often heard from persons who lived there at 
that time, by the efforts that were made for the establish- 
ment of an Episcopal Church in the district, a measure 
which was attempted, but finally defeated by the unyielding 
opposition of the sturdy descendants of the^ puritans, who 
had fled from its intolerance in Europe, and whose horror 
and hate of Episcopacy, had been transmitted to their sons. 

The ecclesiastical and municipal records of Paxton, show 
that although the prime and professed object of the peti- 
tioners for a distinct municipality, was to obtain and enjoy 
greater facilities for public religious worship ; they were not 
exempt from trials and difficulties. There was a lack of 
harmony and unanimity in regard to clerical and ecclesias- 
tical affairs, during some portion of more than forty years. 
During its municipal existence, Paxton has had eight settled 
Congregational Clergymen, the aggregate of whose pas- 
torates is about eighty-two years, averaging a fraction over 
ten years each. 

Their first clergyman was Rev. Silas Biglow, a gentleman 
highly esteemed for his intellectual and moral worth, greatly 
beloved during his life, and as much lamented for years 
after his death by his parishioners. He was ordained on the 
21st.;of October A. D. 1767 ; and died on the 16th., of JSTovem- 
ber A. D. 1769. His successor was Rev. Alexander Thayer, 
who was ordained on the 28th, of November A. D. 1770, and 
dismissed by an ecclesiastical council, mutually chosen by 
the parties in interest, on the 14th., of August 1782. The 
connection between Mr. Thayer and his congregation was 
not harmonious ; various causes contributed to this want of 
Christian love and fellowship. He was strongly suspected 
of being at heart a royalist, which alone was sufficient to 
3 



18 

alienate the aiFections of his people ; he charged his society 
with injustice, for not making good to him all loss in his 
salary by reason of the depreciation in the currency ; his 
salary having been fixed at £QQ, 13s. 4d., he contended that 
this sum should be increased in the same ratio that the cur- 
rency had depreciated, which was not always done, although 
several grants were made for his relief. But political ani- 
mosity and the increasing demand for money to carry on the 
war, prevented the inhabitants of Paxton from giving that 
aid and support to their clergyman, which under other cir- 
cumstances they would have done. After the dismission of 
Mr. Thayer, the society became very much divided, particu- 
larly in relation to the settlement of Rev John Foster as his 
successor. Mr. Foster possessed brilliant talents, but from 
some cause was not universally popular; he had ardent sup- 
porters and determined and active opponents. Protests 
were read at the town meetings held on the subject of his 
settlement, and entered upon the town records, the protest- 
ants declaring they would never pay any taxes assessed 
upon them for his salary, unless taken from them by 
force ; * and alleging that in their opinion " said Foster is not 
learned, nor orthodox, neither of good report." Yet he was 
finally settled on the 8th. of Sept. A. D. 1785, and dismissed 
in 1789. He was a man of extraordinary mental powers, 
possessing a stentorian voice, great fluency, a perfect com- 
mand of language, never writing his sermons, yet never hes- 
itating a moment in their delivery, independent minded, 



* At that time the Minister's salary was raised by a tax assessed by the 
town officers upon the polls and estates of all the inhabitants, except such as 
had filed certificates with them of belonging to some other religious society. 
This tax was specified on the assessor's books as '' Minister Tax," and was 
collected in the same manner as the " State," " County," and " Town," taxes 
were. 



19 

with a certain obliquity of character which rendered him 
unpopular, especially with his rigid puritan brethren in the 
ministry. In early life I have heard some of his parishioners 
relate many anecdotes concerning him ; one or two of which 
will elucidate his character : — It was customary in those 
days when capital punishment was to be inflicted, to take 
the culprit on the day of his execution to some meeting- 
house in the immediate neighborhood of the gallows, and 
there in his presence have religious services performed, the 
clergyman to officiate on the occasion being previously 
nominated by the criminal. One Johnston Green, a thief 
and burglar who had been convicted and sentenced to be 
hung at Worcester, selected Mr. Foster to preach his execu- 
tion sermon. On the appointed day a large concourse had 
assembled in the church as usual, among whom were many 
of the clergymen of Worcester and the adjacent towns. 
After the arrival of the officers of the law with their doomed 
victim, Mr, Foster invited one of the ministers then present 
to make the introductory prayer on the occasion, who de- 
clined ; another was requested and he declined ; still another 
who also refused, and th^ invitation was extended to all whom 
he saw in the house, which was successfully declined by all : 
Mr. Foster then stepped on to the stand in the pulpit, and 
as he did so, soliloquising, yet in a voice that reached every 
ear, " Thank God, I can preach and pray too." He then 
prayed with such fervour and pathos that not only the pri- 
soner, but many of the audience wept aloud, and to use the 
language of my informant who was present *' there was not 
a dry eye in the house." In a sermon he once said that 
"the doctrine of original sin, sprang from Rome in the third 
century, and would to God it was back again." Some 
Church members were greatly shocked and offended, deem- 



20 

ing it rank heresy, if not absolute blasphemy. A church 
meeting was called to consider the matter ; Mr. Foster 
attended, and to pacify the disaffected, he promised to make 
a public recantation of the offensive language the next Sab- 
bath. On that day the house was crowded, and after the 
usual religious exercises were finished, he stated that he had 
been left to say in his pulpit that the doctrine of original sin 
sprang from Rome in the third century, and would to God it 
was back again. He then in a very penetential tone con- 
tinued, " brethren I am sorry, I humbly confess my error, I 
regret it exceedingly ; I regret that I did not say that the 
doctrine of original sin sprang from hell, and would to God 
it was back again." He was not required to make any 
more public recantations. 

So great was the opposition to Mr. Foster that many 
seceded from the society and formed a new one ; but after 
his dismission an effort was made to reunite the two socie- 
ties, w^hich was effected, and took place on the 27th. day of 
May 1793 ; and on the 5th. day of E'ovember 1794, Rev. 
Daniel Grosvenor, previously settled at Grafton in Massa- 
chusetts, was installed, who by his urbanity and affability, 
succeeded for some years in maintaining harmony and peace 
in the society ; and it was fondly hoped that the old root of 
bitterness was eradicated. But that hope proved fallacious. 
About the commencement of the present century dissatis- 
faction began to manifest itself, and increased to so great a 
degree that Mr. Grosvenor, whose health had become some- 
what impaired, asked a dismission, which was granted on 
the 17th. of March A. D. 1802, After a lapse of more than 
five years, Rev. Gains Conant succeeded Mr. Grosvenor, 
and was ordained on the 14th. of February A. D. 1808 ; and 



21 

dismissed of the 21st. of September A. D. 1831 ; and on 
the same day, and by the same council that dismissed Mr. 
Conant, Eev. Moses Winch, was ordained as his successor. 
Mr, Winch held the sacred office until the 28th. day of Au- 
gust A. D. 1834, when he was dismissed ; and was suc- 
ceeded by Rev. James D. Farnsworth, who was ordained 
April 30th. 1835, and dismissed in May 1840. On the 
eleventh day of l^ovember Eighteen hundred and forty, the 
present worthy incumbent of the clerical oflSce, Rev. William 
Phipps, was ordained, whose continuance in it for a quarter 
of a century, is plenary proof of his worth, and acceptability 
to his parishioners. 

Paxton like many other towns in the Commonwealth was 
never incorporated as a town by any other special enactment 
than the one already mentioned ; by which the inhabitants 
were vested with all the powers, privileges and immunities 
of a town, except only the right of sending a representative 
to the General Court. This right was granted to Paxton in 
common with all the towns and districts in the colony, 
restricted like it in that particular, by an act of the new 
State Government of Massachusetts in July, in the j^ear 
Seventeen hundred and seventy-five. In the preamble of this 
act it is set forth, *' Whereas there are divers acts, or laws 
heretofore made and passed by former General Courts, or 
assemblies of this colony for the incorporation of towns and 
districts, which, against common right and in derogation of 
the rights granted to the inhabitants of this colony by the 
charter, contain an exception of the right and privilege of 
choosing and sending a representative to the Great and 
General Court or assembly : — Be it therefore enacted and 
declared by the Council and House of Representatives in 
General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, 



22 

that henceforth every such exception contained in any act 
or law heretofore made and passed by any G.eneral Court 
or assembly of this Colony for erecting or incorporating any 
town or district, shall be held and taken to be altogether 
null and void ; and that every town and district in this Col- 
ony consisting of thirty or more freeholders and other 
inhabitants qualified by charter to vote in the election of a 
representative, shall henceforth be held and taken to have 
fall right, power and privilege, to elect and depute one or 
more persons being freeholders, and resident in such town 
or district, to serve for, and represent them in an}/ Great and 
General Court or Assembly hereafter to be held and kept 
for this Colony according to the limitations in an act or law 
of the General assembly, entitled an act for ascertaining the 
number and regulating the House of Representatives, any 
exceptions of that right and privilege contained or expressed 
in the respective acts or laws for the incorporation of such 
town or district notwithstanding." 

As this act was passed by the inchoate Eepublican Gov- 
ernment of Massachusetts, it may be interesting to inquire 
how that body came into existence and obtained power and 
authority to make altogether null and void the enactments 
of the Great and General Court, instituted and established 
by, and under the authority of "William and Mary, by the 
grace of God King and Queen of England, France and Ire- 
land, Defenders of the faith ; and of George, by the grace 
of God, of Great Britain France and Ireland King, defender 
of the faith, &c." To do this I beg your indulgence for a 
few moments, while I call your attention to some of the 
events which immediately preceded the commencement of 
armed resistance to British encroachments upon American 
liberty. 



23 

Thomas Gage arrived at Boston, in May A. D. 1774, com- 
missioned as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of His 
Majesty's forces in the Province of Massachusetts Bay in 
New England, under royal instructions to enforce the ob- 
noxious acts of Parliament, which the people justly deemed 
oppressive, and flagrant encroachments upon their charter- 
rights, and subversive to their liberties. He endeavoured to 
carry out those instructions by military force, and official 
chicane. The General Court was in session ; and in conse- 
quence of the doings of the late Governor, Francis Bernard 
and his official satelites, a plan had been matured by the 
people to call a continental Congress, for the purpose of 
forming a union of all the Colonies, to resist British tyranny. 
This plan was to be brought before the House of Represen- 
tatives for their approval and adoption ; all of which had 
been kept secret from His Excellency and his tory officials. 
On the seventeenth day of June, the House closed its doors 
and proceeded to the consideration of that momentous 
measure ; a tory member obtained leave of absence, and 
communicated to the Governor the subject of deliberation 
then before the House ; whereupon he immediately dis- 
patched the Secretary to dissolve the Court- That function- 
ary, upon finding the doors closed, and demanding admit- 
tance was informed that " the House was engaged upon 
very important business, which when they had finished they 
would let him in : " whereupon he read the proclamation of 
dissolution, upon the door-steps, and in the Council Cham- 
ber. This was the last General Court ever convened and held 
in Massachusetts under the summons and authority of a Royal 
Governor. Subsequently General Gage issued writs to the 
towns and districts to elect delegates to a General Court, to 
be convened at Salem on the fifth day of October, but a 



24 

few days before that time arrived, he countermanded those 
precepts by proclamation. This last measure was deemed 
illegal, and therefore generally disregarded.* Ninety dele- 
gates were duly elected and assembled at the time and place 
designated in the writs, where they waited the entire day 
for the arrival of His Excellency, or some other constitu- 
tional officer to administer the customary oath of office to 
them ; but no one appearing for that purpose, on the seventh 
day of October A. I). 1774, the delegates resolved them- 
selves " into a Provincial Congress of Deputies of the sev- 
eral towns and districts in the Province of Massachusetts 
Bay, in I^ew England," and temporarily organized by choos- 
ing John Hancock, Chairman, and Benjamin Lincoln, 
Secretary. The Congress then adjourned to meet at Con- 
cord the eleventh day of October ; that being the time and 
place which the conventions of Delegates of the several 
counties in the province, had previously agreed upon, for 
the meeting of a Provincial Congress. This adjournment 
was therefore made in conformity with the resolves of those 
County Assemblies, which had been held before the issuing 
of those execution writs. 

This Congress met agreeably to adjournment, and in con- 
junction with Delegates, who had. been chosen by the towns 
and districts, for the express purpose of forming a Provin- 
cial Congress, they reconsidered the vote passed at Salem, 
and then organized by choosing John Hancock, President, 
instead of Chairman ; and Benjamin Lincoln, was re-elected 
Secretary. A Continental Congress having been formed by 
Delesrates from the several Colonies, and beins; in session at 



* It was contended that the Governor could not dissolve the General Court 
until the members had assembled, and had been duly qualified : and having 
summoned one, he could not nullify that summons by a proclamation. 



25 

that time in Philadelphia. This Provincial Congress of 
Massachusetts consulted that body relative to the formation 
of a government for this Commonwealth. On the ninth 
day of June A. J). 1775, the Continental Congress in 
answer to the request of Massachusetts, passed the follow- 
ing ; — " Resolved that no obedience being due to the act 
of Parliament, for altering the Charter of Massachusetts 
Bay, nor to a Governor or Lieutenant Governor, who will 
not observe the directions of, but endeavour to subvert that 
Charter, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor are to be 
considered as absent, and their offices vacant,* and as there 
is no council there, and as the inconveniences arising from 
the suspension of the powers of government are intolerable, 
especially at a time when General Gage hath actually levied 
war, and is carrying on hostilities against His Majesty's 
peaceful and loyal subjects of that colony ; in order to con- 
form as near as may be to the spirit and substance of the 
Charter, it be recommended to the Provincial Congress to 
write letters to the inhabitants of the several places w^hich 
are entitled to representation in assembly, requesting them 
to choose such representatives ; and that the assembly when 
chosen should elect councillors ; which assembly and coun- 
cil should exercise the powers of Government, until a Gov- 
ernor of His Majesty's appointment will consent to govern 
the Colony according to its Charter." 

Li accordance with the recommendation of this resolve, a 
*' letter" was duly prepared, printed and dispersed to the 
several towns and districts, requesting " the selectmen 
thereof to call meetings of the leo:al voters of their respec- 



* By the Charter of William and Mary it is provided that in the absence of 
the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, or deputy Governor, a majority of the 
Council were vested with the powers and authority of the Governor. 

4 



26 

tive corporations to elect representatives to represent them 
in a Great and General assembly to be convened, held and 
kept for the service of said Colony, until the end of the day 
next preceding the last Wednesday of May next, if neces- 
sary, and no longer, at the Meeting House in Watertovvn, 
upon Wednesday the nineteenth day of July next ensuing 
the date hereof. " This was dated the 19th. of June A. D. 
1775. 

The third Provincial Congress was dissolved on the nine- 
teenth day of July A. D. 1775, and the New Government, 
in accordance with the recommendation of the Continental 
Congress was organized upon that plan ; and this continued 
to be the form of Government, and the manner of electing 
its members, until the formation and adoption of our State 
Constitution in A. D. 1780.* 

The Legislative body which gave to Paxton, and to all 
other municipal corporations restricted in like manner, the 
right of Representation in the State Legislature, was created 
and constituted, as I have just related by the voice of God, 
that is the voice of the people : "Vox populi vox est Dei," 
an authority superior to that of British Potentates. 

The first Representative of Paxton, according to the best 
information which I have been able to obtain from its records, 



* The Executive Council which was annually elected by the House of Rep- 
resentatives, as recommended by the Continental Congress, performed the 
duties of Governor as provided by the old Charter. Yet the people, being ap- 
prehensive that the exigences of the times required a Chief Executive Officer, 
as early as A. D. 1777, agitated the subject of framing and adopting a State 
Constitution ; and on the 17th. of June 1779, precepts were issued by the Gen- 
eral Court for the election, by the towns and districts of the State, of Delegates 
to meet at Cambridge in September following, for the purpose of forming a 
State Constitution. Adam Maynard, was chosen a Delegate to this Conven- 
tion from Paxton on the tenth day of August A. D. 1779, as the town records 
show, " for the sole purpose of forming a new Constitution." 



27 

was Abraham Smith, who was probably elected on the 23d. 
of May A. D. 1776. I find a record of a warrant for calling 
a Town Meeting to be held on that day for the purpose of 
choosing " a person to represent them in the Great and 
General Court agreeably to a precept directed to them for 
that purpose." But there is no record of what was done at 
that meeting, and the warrant was not recorded until A. D. 
1779. That Mr. Smith was then chosen is reasonably infer- 
red from a vote of the town passed at a meeting held on 
the third day of May A. D. 1777, by which " Mr. Abraham 
Smith, our present representative " was instructed "to use 
his influence in the General Assembly " that a certain act be 
repealed. This is the first mention made in the records, of 
the town having a representative in the legislature. Rev. 
Alexander Thayer was sent as a delegate from Paxton, to 
the third Provincial Congress, which was convened at 
Watertown, on the thirty-first day of May A. D. 1775. The 
Committee of Correspondence for the County of Worcester, 
knowing; Mr. Thayer's political proclivity to toryism, remon- 
strated against his holding a seat in that body ; and a com- 
mittee to whom the case was referred, reported against his 
right ; but their report was not accepted, yet leave of absence 
was granted to the Rev. delegate, and a motion " that he 
be instru(jted to return as soon as may be " was negatived. 
Thus it appears, tho' the Congress virtually admitted his 
right to a seat, it was very willing to dispense with his occu- 
pation of it, probably on account of his want of political 
orthodoxy. 

Paxton having been a part of Leicester and Rutland, for 
nearly half a century after the settlements of them, it is dif- 
ficult to ascertain when the first permanent settlements were 



28 

made within its limits. Ralph Earl * owned and lived on 
the farm which formerly belonged to the late Joseph Pen- 
niman ; and Ralph Earl was one of the first fifty families, who 
settled in Leicester, and was one of the grantees named in 
the deed of the Proprietors of Leicester, to John Stebbins 
and others ; and to him was assigned Lot ]^o. 47. Seth 
Metcalf was an early settler in the Korth-westerly part of 
the town, as appears from a special act of the Legislature to 
prevent his fiirm from being taxed in both Rutland and 
Paxton; Phineas Moore, who lived on the road leading 
from Leicester to Rutland, John Snow, on the farm where 
the late Colonel Willard Snow lived ; David Davis, Benjamin 
Sweetser, Samuel Mann, Jonathan Witt, Oliver Witt, 
w^ere among the early settlers ; also in the South-westerly 
part of the town were James Thompson, William Thomp- 
son, James Bemis, Abijah Bemis, Jason Livermore, Josiah 
Livermore, William Wicker, David Wicker, Jacob Wicker, 
John Wicker, Isaac Bellows, and Ezekiel BeDows, at a very 
early period. These facts I have learned from old family 
Records, and from the statements of very aged persons made 
to me more than sixty years ago. 

When the engrossed bill for incorporating the town 
passed the House of Representatives, there was no name in- 
serted in it; the blank was filled in the Council by the word 
Paxton, in honor of Charles Paxton, who was at that time 
the Marshal of the Admiralty Court, and a great friend 



* Ralph Earl had two sons, one of whom became somewhat famous as an 
artist 5 — he made a painting of Niagara Falls ; and subsequently resided in one 
of the Southern States ; and there is good reason to believe that he, or a son of 
his, was the R. E. W. Earl, who for many years was an inmate of the Hermit- 
age, employed almost exclusively in painting portraits of General Andrew 
Jackson ; and died there in A. D. 18?>1 ; and was buried in the garden near the 
graves of Gen. and Mrs. Jackson. 



29 

and favourite of Francis Bernard the Governor, and of 
Thomas Hutchinson, the Deputy Governor. When a child 
I have often heard it stated by elderly persons, that Mr. 
Paxton promised to give the town a Church bell if it was 
named after him ; but which promise was never fulfilled. 
Although the political sins of Charles Paxton, were com- 
mitted almost a century ago, history has not forgotten them 
and I trust I shall not be charged with supererogation, if on 
this occasion, I repeat some part of its record. He was a 
man of polished manners, pleasing address, and gentlemanly 
appearance,* but an intriguing politician, and a despicable 
sycophant, '' every man's humble servant, but no man's 
friend," as his proper figure was labelled, when on Pope's 
day, as the anniversary of the Gun-powder jDlot was called, 
it was paraded through the streets of Boston, standing be- 
tween the effigies of the Pope and the Devil. He was the 
tool of Charles Townshen, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
and in connection with that functionary devised the scheme 
of raising a revenue from the Colonies by a tax on glass, 
paper, painter's colors, and tea, which passed both Houses of 
Parliament, and was approved by the King on the Twenty- 
ninth day of June A. D. lT67.t " The passage of this bill," 
says Barry, "was not a little forwarded by the influence 
of Paxton, a citizen of Boston, who had been sent from 
America, at the instance of Bernard and Hutchinson, and 
Oliver, to appear as advocate of the officers of the Crown, 



■^ There is a portrait of Mr. Paxton, bj Wainwright, ia the Rooms of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society, in Boston ; and also another, as I am 
informed, in the Hall of the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester. 



f This was the act which led to the associations in the Colonies to abstain 
from the use of English manufactures, &c., and in opposition to which the Tea 
was thrown overboard in Boston Harbor on the IGth of June A. D. 1773. 



30 

and to mature a scheme for a Board of Customs," at the 
head of which, Paxton was afterward placed, Sabin says, 
*' for a pecuniary consideration," as he thinks there is evi- 
dence to show, "as he was a place hunter, bought and 
sold office with money, and was as rapacious as the fabled 
horpy." Mr. Paxton was particularly active and earnest for the 
issuing writs of assistance, by which the officers of the cus- 
toms were fully authorized to enter any and all buildings to 
search for, and to seize, any and all goods and merchandize 
which they suspected had been smuggled. He often applied 
for them to the courts, and in opposing such an application, 
James Otis made that memorable speech which has immor- 
talized his name as the accoucheur of American Indepen- 
dence ; and of which speech John Adams said, "American 
Independence was then and there born. The seeds of patriots 
and heroes to defend the vigorous youth were then and there 
sown. Rvery man of an immense crowded audience appeared 
to me (says he) to go away as I did, ready to take up arms 
against writs of assistance." After the arrival of the first 
troops in Boston, at the instance of Paxton and his fellow 
Commissioners, James Otis denounced in a card the com- 
missioners by name, which led to the assault upon Mr. Otis 
by John Robinson, one of the Commissioners of the Cus- 
toms, and others, when Mr. Otis received a blow upon his 
head which finally terminated his life. 

The course pursued by Paxton was so rapacious, insolent 
and tyrannical, that he became the just object of public 
hatred, was treated with indignity, was hung in e&igy upon 
Liberty tree, * driven at one time by the wrath of the 



* " Liberty Tree," was a large elm, which stood at the Junction of Essex 
street with Washington street, on the site of " Liberty Tree Block," nearly 
opposite Boylston street ; on the front of this Block is carved in bass-relief, a 



31 

people into Castle William, and left Boston at the time of 
its evacuation by the British troops, went to Halifax, thence 
to England, where he lived in merited obscurity, and died 
at the advanced age of eighty-four years, A. D. 1788 ; as 
stated in Sabine's Loyalists. 

One of the first public acts of the town, touching the 
affairs of the revolution, was to raise a committee " to peti- 
tion the General Court for a name more agreeable to the 
inhabitants and the public than thatof Paxton." No wonder 
that the citizens of this town wished to drop a name worthy 
of oblivion, and the execration of every true patriot ; and 
even at this late period it is a source of regret, at least to 
me, that the committee chosen for that purpose, either neg- 
lected their duty, or the Legislature did not discharge 
theirs. 

However infamous the name Paxton may be when remem- 
bered as the designation of an unworthy British official, 
there is none that stands fairer on the page of history, than 
does the Toivn of Paxton. 

During the exciting events which immediately preceded 



representation of this tree, upon freestone. It was a favorite resort of the 
" Sons of Liberty," and the space around it was called *' Liberty Hall," at the 
commencement of the Revolution. Here large assemblies of people often met for 
consultation and to deliberate upon measures to be adopted in vindication of 
heir rights against Parliamentary aggressions. It was this spot consecrated to 
liberty, that the consignees of the tea, sent to Boston by the East India Com- 
pany were summoned to come, on the 3d. day of November A. D. 177.S, to 
resign their commissions before the citizens of Boston and vicinity, who had 
been requested to assemble there to witness the ceremony. 

This famous tree, says Barry, was cut down by order of General Gage some- 
time in the summer of 1775, by the British troops and the tories, " who after a 
long spell of laughing and grinning, sweating and swearing, and foaming with 
diabolical malice succeeded in bringing its tufted honors to the ground, but 
not without the loss of one of their number perched upon the topmost limb, 
who was crushed by his precipitate fall to the ground." 



32 

the actual commencement of hostilities, the inhabitants took 
all those precautionary measures universally adopted by the 
towns throughout the country. At a town meeting holden 
on the 22d. of August A. D. 1774, a committee w^as chosen 
to consult and report on the state of public affairs ; and they 
voted to buy a barrel of powder in addition to the quantity 
then on hand, A Committee of Correspondence and one 
of Inspection, was duly appointed ; the latter of which was 
very vigilant in watching the conduct of all such persons as 
were suspected of Toryism, of whom there were several in 
the town, one of whom was the Clergyman. All the able- 
bodied men capable of bearing arms were formed into two 
companies, " The Standing Company," and the "Minute 
Company. " The latter were fully armed and equipped, 
and were often exercised in military tactics ; money was 
raised to pay the minute men for their time and expenses 
spent and incurred in military training. On the 17th. of 
January A. D. 1775, thirty-three men were drafted from 
these as minute men, who were duly organized and officered 
and on the receipt of the intelligence of the affair at Lex- 
ington and Concord, April 19th. 1775, they marched to 
Cambridge under the command of Capt. Willard Moore, 
where he with a portion of his men enlisted into the Conti- 
nental army. Captain Moore was promoted to the office of 
Major, and fell in the battle of Bunker Hill. Several of 
this company served during the war. From one of them I 
heard the following statement of an event he witnessed, and 
which is illustrative of the feelings of the men of that day. 
Baron Stuben, a former European Military Officer, was In- 
spector-General of the Continental Army, was a thorough 
tactician and rigid disciplinarian, and in drilling our troops 
was very strict, and sometimes severe. The army was in 



New Jersey, and where the musquitoes were so numerous 
that unless continually kept ofl' by force would cover a per- 
son's face almost in an instant. The troops were being 
drilled by Stuben, who seeing a man near him brush the 
musquitoes from his face, sprang towards the offender with 
his uplifted bludgeon, aiming a blow at his head, which 
missing its intended object fell upon a soldier at his side 
with such force as brought him down upon his knees. The 
injured man rose instantly to his feet, and as he did so, drew 
a ball-cartridge from his box, bit off the end, dropped it into 
his musket, aimed at the Inspector and fired ; but an officer 
seeing the actions of the soldier, rushed forward and with 
his sword threw up the muzzle of the gun, so that the ball 
passed over its intended victim. He was seized and dis- 
armed, whereupon General Stuben apologized, saying it 
was the other he intended to hit, not him, for he was a good 
fellow, and offered him a piece of gold as an atonement for 
the blow ; that was spurned with disdain by the champion 
of freedom, he saying "your money perish with you, I came 
to fight for my country against oppression and tyranny, and 
not to have my brains beat out by a d d foreign rene- 
gade." This was the spirit of " 76." 

Paxton contained at the commencement of the war of 
the revolution about ^ve hundred inhabitants, and during 
that struggle always furnished its full quotas of men, which 
were from three to eight for different lengths of service ; 
on two calls it was eight each time. Besides these requisi- 
tions it furnished ma?iy volunteers. Jason Livermore, of 
Paxton, and Samuel Brewer, of Sutton, raised in Paxton 
and Sutton a company which marched from this town on 
the ninth day of August, 1776, to Charlestown, No. 4, in 
New Hampshire, thence to Tyconderoga and Mount Hope, 
5 



34 

where they were stationed some considerable time. In 
short, there were many acts of individual devotion and pat- 
riotism, especially among the women of this town, which 
would have done honor to Spartan or Roman matrons. In 
order to furnish the minute-men with ammunition they gave 
up their pewter dishes to be made into balls with which to 
punish the violators of their country's rights and liberties.* 
It appears from the records that Paxton paid almost ten 
thousand dollars for hiring, clothing, &c., furnished the 
soldiers and for military stores demanded by the Government, 
besides the amounts paid into the State and other treasuries. 
In short, it did its full share in resisting the encroachments 
which its infamous namesake had labored so assiduously 
to make upon American liberty ; and although its in- 
dividual and municipal sufferings were extreme, and some- 
times almost intolerable, its patriotism never flagged, and it 
evinced by its conduct a determination to die or be free. 
And history, if just, will laud its inhabitants as much for 
their untiring efforts in defence of liberty, as it may justly 



* A father and three sons were plowing in their field when informed by a 
messenger of the incursion of " The Regulars " to Lexington and Concord, and 
that the Minute Company, of which they were members, would march forth- 
with. The father said ^' boys, unyoke the cattle, and let us be off." This was 
done, and with the wife's and mother's pewter plates and spoons in their 
pouches, in the form of bullets, they marched to Cambridge, and on the seven- 
teenth of June, 1775, these same pewter bullets, were sent forth from the 
works on Breed's Hill, as messengers of death to .the assaulting foe. The 
above facts I had from one of the actors ; and from the wife and mother, who 
was left at home with a son, then not quite twelve years of age, to carry on 
the farm and provide for the family. This she cUd effectually, and in addition 
thereto, excavated the earth from beneath her barn and from some other build- 
ings, and manufactured from it more than a hundred pounds of nitre, or salt- 
petre, for the purpose of making gunpowder ; of which there was a great want 
for the army. This woman died in Paxton about forty years ago, at the great 
age of one hundred years, lacking a month or two. She was the widow of 
Jason Livermore. 



35 

execrate Charles Paxton and his wicked coadjutors for their 
strenuous exertions for its destruction. 

In consequence of the smallness of its territory and its 
unfavorable position, and lack of natural advantages for 
manufacturing purposes, the inducements for immigration 
into the town have been small, while beyond a limited num- 
ber to take the places of parents, its native sons and daugh- 
ters have had but few motives to remain ; hence its popula- 
tion has not increased in as large a ratio as that of many 
other towns in the Commonwealth. At the time of its in- 
corporation it contained about five hundred souls : in A. D. 
1790, 558 ; in 1800, 582 ; in 1810, 619 ; in 1820, 613 ; in 
1830, 597 ; in 1840, 670 ; in 1850, 820 ; in 1860, 725 ; inhab- 
iting one hundred and forty houses, and constituting one 
hundred and seventy families. Their occupations were, in 
A. D. 1860, sixty-two farmers ; twenty-five farm laborers ; 
thirteen laborers ; three merchants ; ninety-seven boot- 
makers ; two male and four female teachers. Although the 
increase of population has been small, it does not follow that 
Paxton has not contributed its share in swelling the popula- 
tion of Massachusetts from three hundred eighty-seven thou- 
sand, seven hundred and eigthy-seven, to one million two 
hundred and thirty-one thousand and sixty-six souls ; and that 
of the United States from three millions nine hundred twenty- 
nine thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, to thirty- 
one millions four hundred and forty-three thousand three 
hundred and twenty-two souls, in seventy years ; that is, 
from A. D. 1790 to 18*0. 

Paxton, during its municipal existence, has participated 
in and witnessed mighty events, such as have astonished the 
world and are unparallelled in the history of nations. Thir- 
teen young colonies with an aggregate population of a little 



36 

rising three millions, without an army, without a navy, 
without a treasury and general government, successfully 
resisting the oppressive domination of one of the most 
powerful nations of Europe, vindicating their title to a high 
-place in the family of nations, and proudly assuming the 
part and majesty of a free Independent Republic, with a 
constellation of thirteen, now increased to thirty-six, stars 
upon its banner ; the tide of civilization rolling on to the 
foot of the Rocky Mountains, breaking over their summits, 
reaching to the shores of the Pacific, and unlocking its vast 
stores of precious metals ; guided by the arts and sciences, 
industry delving into the Alleghanies and their valleys, and 
unbarring their vast store-houses of coal and petroleum to 
commerce and manufactures ; the vast discoveries of science 
and their application to the arts and the use of man ; 
Franklin taming the lightning of heaven, and Morse with a 
wirey harness making it the post-boy of thought, transport- 
ing its messages from one extreme of the Continent to that 
of the other in an instant ; the sun made a rapid and most 
accurate limner ; the sting of pain extracted by the anaesthe- 
tic power of ether and chloroform ; the immense improve- 
ments in navigation, commerce, agriculture and the mechanic 
arts, by which steam out-strips the wind ; the reaper and the 
mowing-machine have rendered obsolete the sickle and the 
scythe ; the rude looms and spinning-wheels of our grand- 
mothers are superceded by the automatic machinery of the 
present day, whose millions of spindles and liy-shuttles, in 
concert with the voice of our watfr-falls, chant constant 
peans to the skill of our artizans; the cities and towns of 
our immense country linked together by a net-work of rail- 
roads, rendering transportation and communication easy and 
rapid ; the science and the art, and the implements of war 



37 

revolutionized, by which the boasted wooden walls of Eng- 
land have become imbecile before the iron-clads of her 
former colonies, and the British Lion cowering behind them 
terror-stricken by the defiatory gaze of the American Eagle 
perched upon the towers of her Monitors. It has seen a 
Southern Confederacy, " conceived in sin and brought forth 
in iniquity," like its prototype, the Apocalyptic Eed Dragon, 
whose tail, rebellion, drew a third part of the stars of our 
political heaven and endeavored to cast them to the earth, 
*' speaking great things, saying, who ,is able to make war 
with me," fighting on the bloody fields of Bull Eun, at 
York Town, at Fair Oaks and Malvern Hill ; in the Valley 
of the Shenandoah, on the Heights of Antietam and the 
Plains of Gettysburg ; at Pittsburg-landing, at Memphis, at 
ISTew Orleans, at Yicksburg, at Chattanooga ; in Alabama, 
in Georgia ; the Carolinas ; along the banks of the Eappa- 
hannock and the Eapidan ; at the Wilderness and Spott- 
sylvania Court House ; before Petersburg and Eichmond, 
that " habitation of devils and of every foul spirit, and the 
cage of every unclean and hateful bird," — at last subdued 
and brought to nought, and its epitaph written by the red 
hand of assassination with the life-blood of a second Wash- 
ington, ^''Eternal infamy and execration.'' It has seen all this, 
and more ; it has seen that plague-spot, slavery, washed from 
the body-politic by the blood of more than two hundred 
thousand of our gallant soldiers, and the foul stain of bond- 
age removed from our escutcheon at a cost of more than 
three thousand millions of treasure. 



ANNIYERSA RY SONG 



WORDS AND MUSIC WRITTEN FOR THE OCCASION, 
BY REV. WILLIAM PHIPPS. 



YEA^ItS OONE BY 



The song of years gone bj, to-day we sing, 
As here we gather round our native home ; — 

The kindest memories of the past we bring, 
With welcome greetings and with joy we come. 

Chorus : — A hundred years, a hundred years, 
With all their scenes are gone j 
Yet may this home be safe to heirs, 
A hundred yeara to come. 

Our parents, friends, and kindred dear here came. 
And lived to weave their brightest web of life ; 

We muse enchanted on their hallowed name, 

Since now they rest, beyond these years of strife. 

These hills and vales from opening life we've known, 
And here our earliest friendships have been made ; 

No other spot on which the sun has shone, 
Claims memories like these, that will not fade. 

We come with teeming thoughts and melting hearts, 
To consecrate a century'' s hirth-day ; — 

May they who next in life shall take our parts, 
More earnest toil, and sing a sweeter lay. 



ORATION: 

BY REV. JOHN F. BIGELOW, D. D. 

THE 

PROGRESS OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC. 



Friends and Fellow Citizens : — 

We have met to day to celebrate the Centennial of our 
birth-place : we have come to honor our native town by the 
services and festivities of this commemorative occasion. It 
is said that seven cities contended for the honor of being the 
birth-place of Homer ; we hope that none will quarrel for 
that distinction in respect to us, being content if our native 
town is pleased to acknowledge us as her sons and daugh- 
ters. We are glad that so many of the family have come to pay 
a visit to our civic mother, on her hundredth birth-day. We 
rejoice that she bears her age so well ; without flattery, we 
can say that she grows prettier as she grows older. Since 
our boyhood, the town has received many improvements, 
not remarkable indeed to a stranger's eye, but noticable by 
ours. Though our native hills cannot boast an Acadian fer- 
tility, yet we are glad to see the smooth fields, the fine roads, 
the white dwellings, the convenient school-houses, and the 
pleasant Church. We rejoice that all of its affairs are so 
well maintained ; but, though interested in the present, our 



40 

thoughts will involuntarily turn to the past. We go back 
to our childhood : it seems but yesterday since we were on 
our way to school, padding bare-footed along the dusty road, 
pausing to skate the glancing stone upon the way-side 
pond, gazing with curiosity and wonder upon the Indians 
with their gay-colored baskets, and making our first acquisi- 
tions in the mysterious lore of reading, writing and the multi- 
plication table. It seems also but yesterday, since of a Sabbath 
morning, we were on our way to the house of God. Even 
now rises up to view the old unsteepled Church, and we see 
the great square pews surmounted by a rack, through which 
we used to look, and the lofty pulpit towering above the 
deacon's seat, overhung by a ponderous sounding-board 
threatening every moment to fall upou the preacher's head, 
and making us feel that then as'now-a-days, the ministry does 
not always occupy a safe position. We shall never forget 
the clatter which was made by the falling seats at the close 
of prayer, nor our astonishment at the first hearing of the 
bass-viol, nor the coldness of our feet before the end of the 
sermon, for then there was no heating apparatus,^as now, to 
modify the frigid atmosphere. We remember also how the 
ears of the people were caught and their ideas set astir by 
the voice of the town-clerk publishing the marriage bans, 
^or should we neglect to mention another vivid reminis- 
cence. I mean that of the intense exhilaration felt, when 
one Sabbath noon, we saw a package of new and brilliant 
books opened for the establishment of a Sabbath School. I 
became a member ; and recall with pleasure the memorizing 
and recitation of the scriptures, a practice, which the abuse 
of the question-books has thrown into desuetude. We 
cannot look upon the change, otherwise than with regret, 
for one Bible-lesson of this kind, is worth more than a 



41 

whole quarter's reference reading. Meanwhile other and 
soberer reminiscences are not absent from mind. There 
comes before me the countenance of the Pastor, whose ven- 
erable form has but so lately been missed ; there are present 
also the recollections of those, who, by exchange, sometimes 
occupied his place ; among whom were Tomlinson and Gay, 
Clark and Packard, Boardman and Miller, Goffe and Wood, 
kelson, Bardwell, and others. I^or are forgotten those 
younger men, some or all of whom, if we mistake not, are 
natives of the town, the junior Conant, Grosvenor, Pierce 
and HoVe. Going to our several liomesteads, thoughts of 
fire-side scenes and by-gone days come back to us, which 
though a pensive sadness steals over us, we love to recall. 
We think too, of our early playmates, and wonder where 
they have gone and how the world has treated them. Alas, 
only a part of them remain ! The words of a grand-daugh- 
ter of the gifted Sheridan rush to mind and we ask you, 

^' Do you remember all the sanny places, 

Where iu bright days long past, we played together ? 
Do you remember all the old home faces, 

That gathered round the hearth in winter weather? 
Do you remember all the happy meetings, 

In summer evenings round the open door, 
Kind looks, kind hearts, kind words, and tender greetings, 
* And clasping bauds whose pulses beat no more. 

Do you remember them ? " 

We have met on this centennial day to exchange mutual 
salutations ; to look on the scenes which first we beheld; to 
revisit the places where we played in childhood ; and to stand 
by the graves of friends ; for "who has not lost a friend ? " 
No convocation will ever assemble us all again on earth ; 
for, following in the rear of our ancestral procession, we 
soon, like our fathers, shall pass the shadowy bourne. 
6 



42 

Would we gain the bright land whose flowery fields we trust 
they have reached ; then must we follow in their footsteps ; 
then must we heed that solemn voice saying : 

'* So live, that when thy summons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan, that moves 
To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death, 
Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night. 
Scourged to his dungeon ; but, sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." 

# 

Our local annals have been ably traced. Having found in 
them much to interest and instruct us ; much to attach us 
to our ancestral home ; much to give us sentiments of ven- 
eration for our fathers ; much to inspire in us high and 
noble purposes of life, and being as we hope, duly resolved 
to transmit, with all possible improvements, to those com- 
ing after us, that, which we received from those preceding 
us, let us turn our thoughts to a broader field, The progress 
of the American JRepublic. 

I speak of progress : I shall not now undertake to 
prove that human society is progressive, for I assume it, be- 
lieving that the development of the Divine plans in history 
requires this progressiveness. Without this fundamental 
idea, we can have no philosophy of history. More than 
this : society gives forth in itself manifestations of a law of 
advancement. When we reflect upon the tendencies of so- 
ciety ; when we reflect upon its compensations, one being 
able to supply, what another lacks ; when we reflect upon 
the disposition in society to secure its gains in the form of 
institutions, and to displace those institutions so soon as 
they have accomplished their end ; when we reflect upon 
the power in society of conveying the gains of one genera- 



43 

tioii to another ; when we reflect upon the liberalizing and 
enlightening effect of intercommunication, the stimulative 
influence of exigency, the encouragement to endeavor de- 
rived from success, and the desire in the human mind to 
realize ideals ; when we reflect upon these things, we yield 
our assent to the doctrine of the progressiveness * of hu- 
man society. Yet we construct no apriori theory of social 
progress, like that of Gurgot, and his disciples, Condorcet 
and Madame de Stael, based on the assumed perfectability 
of human nature, and requiring the utmost violence to set 
the fact* into its Procrustean framework. While the reality 
of the progress is clear, it is not claimed, however, that it 
is chronologically uniform nor geographically equal. What 
we claim is, that a law is verified, the action of which is 
carrying forward the human race to a far higher historical 
destination. In accordance with this view, we assert that 
the last hundred years have formed an epoch of vast impor- 
tance, in its bearings upon the interests of mankind. Limit- 
ing the view to our own country, we wish to look at it with 
respect to its general progress past mid future. 

I. We speak first of the past ; but, upon this point, I re- 
gret to say, that the brevity of the hour will oblige me to 
omit all beyond a brief synopsis of what I intended to pre- 
sent. 

Look to the nation's political progress. That the political 
institutions of a State are fundamental to its happiness and 
prosperity ; that they have generally been found in a defec- 
tive and inadequate condition ; and that every patriotic and 
enlightened statesman will employ his utmost influence and 
endeavor to advance them to the highest practicable point, 
will doubtless be admitted truths. How did our Puritan 



^ See Dr. Huntinortoa's Graham Lectures. 



44 

ancestry find them in the mother country ? All the world 
knows the answer : they found them in a sadly deficient 
state, imposing heavy burdens, allowing but a stinted liberty, 
and especially abridging religious freedom. What course 
did they take ? Such was the opposition to the progress of 
ideas, and such the hopelessness, for their day, of any essen- 
tial reform, that finally they determined on the establish- 
ment of a new political system. With what breadth of con- 
ception they devized it ; with what energy of purpose they 
went forward to its foundation ; with what tenacity they 
clung to their difficult enterprise despite all forms df obsta- 
cles, the world well knows. What was the result ? Behold 
it in this great Eepublic, which we see to-day, and of which 
we form a part. The settlement at Plymouth was made, 
and the volume of American history was begun. Engaged 
in fierce contests with the savages, distressed by the bloody 
wars with France, in which England was involved, and an- 
noyed by grievance piled upon grievance, they had come 
forward to the year 1765, the date of our town, a year 
marked by an event more decisive, perhaps, than any other, 
in its influence on the history of the Colonies. What was 
that event? It was the passage of the memorable Stamp 
Act. The spirit of the people was aroused : a Congress of 
the Colonies was called : the country was agitated from one 
end to the other ; and this state of public feeling progressed, 
until it finally culminated in the Declaration of Independence. 
Such was the condition of aftairs, at the beginning of our 
century. Within a decade from that time the Revolution had 
already begun. In the spirit and struggles of that crisis, 
our fathers had a share ; for they would not fail of partici- 
pation in them if they could, and they could not if they 
would. The intellio-ence of the bloodshed at Lexington, the 



45 

call for recruits, the military preparation and the moment- 
ous emergency, which was forced npon the countr}^, pro- 
duced an intense excitement. To aharm and agitation, 
succeeded grievous pecuniary embarrassment ; for the Con- 
tinental currency became so depreciated, that it was almost 
valueless. Stories of these scenes, from the lips of a vener- 
able relative, a sharer in them, are among the familiar 
memories of my boyhood. Of the successive stages of the 
revolutionary struggle ; of the deplorable state of things 
which followed the war ; of the origin and history of polit- 
ical patties ; of the formation of Constitutional Govern- 
ment ; of the progress of religious freedom ; of the exten- 
sion of our territorial limits by the Louisiana purchase ; of 
the last war with England and of the late national crisis, I 
have no time to speak. I have alluded to the formation of 
the Union. What sort of a system was it ? Was it a loose 
congeries of states, or was it a compact National Govern- 
ment ? This is the question between Unionism and Seces- 
sionism : this is the issue, which has been contested in the 
great conflict, and which we believe the conquering arms 
of the Nation have settled for all time. 

The material aspect of the national progress is one, too, 
which we must not leave out of view. Though the tenden- 
cies to a sordid materialism are to be deprecated, yet we 
suppose that mankind will always continue to look after 
their substantial interests. Proudhon tells us that " pro- 
perty is theft ; " but probably he will not very soon make 
the world concur in his definition, for they will pertina- 
ciously insist that the stealing of property, not the property 
itself, is theft. On this view, our people have acted ; and, 
within the last hundred years, most notably have they 
augmented their worldly substance. What an increase of 



46 

property has there been since the beginning of our cen- 
tury ! Look to the country, as it then was. See the 
thirteen English Colonies lying along the shores of the 
Atlantic and skirting an almost unbroken wilderness, 
that stretched from ocean to ocean. The resources of 
the people were limited. What was the state of things at 
the close of the Eevolution ? The national debt, at that 
time, as compared with the same at the end of the civil 
war, was only a mere item ; but, considered in relation to 
the amount of ability to meet the indebtedness, it vvas a far 
heavier burden. In fact, the disparity, in this rellpect, is 
such as to forbid all comparison. ]^o more than three mil- 
lions at the close of the Revolution, the population is now 
more than thirty millions : at a still higher rate of increase 
has been the rise of property. Forests have been cleared : 
lands surveyed : roads laid out : cities reared : wharves and 
ships built to such an extent, that the statistics are amazing. 
The present, how unlike the past ! How different now the 
great majority of the dwelling-houses, from what they were 
a hundred years ago ! In expense, in architectural design, 
in internal arrangement, in furniture, and in general effect, 
how different ? We do not deny that there were fine houses 
then ; but they were the exceptions. The majority of them 
were not of costly construction. Enter them. Their occu- 
pants clad in home-spun, their buzzing wheels, their sanded 
floors, their straight-backed chairs, their wooden trenchers 
and their pewter plates give to things an unfamiliar air. 
How few are the conveniences and luxuries ! Carpets and 
pianos are seldom found ; heating furnaces, cooking ranges, 
bath-rooms, gas-lights and sewing-machines never. Look 
at the agriculture of those days, , and compare it with the 
present. Invention and science have procured for us mani- 



47 

fold improvements and processes, of which there was then 
no knowledge. As to manufactures, it went ill with them, 
for English monopolists prohibited the fabrication, by the 
Colonists, of those things which they themselves had to 
sell. How rapidly, too, since the day of the fathers, have 
been developed the resources of our wide domain ! Coal 
beds of untold extent lay spread out beneath their feet ; 
metallic ores of incalculable richness slumbered in their un- 
worked veins. To what an extent have later genius and 
industry brought these to light ! What progress has there 
been in mechanical invention in general ! If we mention 
the steamboat, the lightning-rod, the cotton-gin and the 
mowing-machine, these names will only sugo^est a number- 
less list, to which we cannot even allude. Almost every- 
thing is done by machinery, from the pointing of a needle 
to the tunneling of a mountain ; the iron-horse speeds across 
the country, dragging after him scores of cars, with hun- 
dreds of passengers, at the rate of forty miles an hour ; and 
messages of affliction, or business, or war are sent over the 
Continent on the wings of the lightning. 

Still further ; the intellectual j^rogress of the people is a 
noble exemplification of public improvement. As there is 
a historic advancement of the individual, so there is also of 
the collective mind. By this progress I mean to include 
whatever is achieved in the enlightenment of ignorance ; in 
the removal of error ; in the enlargement of the sphere of 
ideas ; in the attainment of truth ; in the clearing of the 
popular intuitions ; and in the increase, in general, of intel- 
lectual power. I mean also, to include whatever embodies 
and expresses, in a literary form, the national mind. In the 
early history of the Colonies there was a large number of 
cultivated men ; but these were an importation, and, in pro- 



48 

cess of time, had passed away : there must be an intellec- 
tual growth from our own soil, which was the work of time. 
In no stinted degree, that growth has been realized. What 
have been the agencies at work in its production ? The 
influences have been manifold : some are obvious, others 
occult. Of all, however, the most fundamental and perva- 
sive have been the Church, the College and the School ; for 
they are everywhere, opening their doors to instruct the 
people, not only in the city, but in the town as well, and even 
in the pioneer settlement, almost on the remotest verge of 
civilization. Co-ordinate with these agencies has also been 
found the Press, sending forth its bound volumes and its 
printed sheets in almost countless numbers. The newspaper 
is the peculiarity of the times. Dr. William Adams, in a 
graphic article on the first half of the present century, has 
well compared it to the telescope of Sir John Herschel, 
*' which was so swung that it reflected all the distant wonders 
of the sky, sweeping across its lenses, upon a small horizontal 
table under the eye of the observer : analogous to this, 
the newspaper brings all the occurrences of the world, 
under the light of your reading lamp and within the sphere 
of your parlor table." What a development has there been 
of American Literature ! In the last half of the eighteenth 
century, it contained materials so valuable, that we must 
never cease to prize them ; but, so late as 1820, its meager- 
hess was ridiculed by Sydney Smith, in the Edinburgh 
Keview. How is it now ? Who pretends to deny that 
American Literature is a highly respectable entity. A Li- 
brary could be formed consisting solely of American authors, 
and representing every department of thought and investi- 
gation. Such a Library w^e should rejoice to see established, 
and we hope it may be done. Not only in quantity, but 



49 

also in tone and quality how great an improvement ! Ear- 
nestly have we looked for the time, when our Literature 
would become independent in its spirit and national in its 
character ; when it would be no reproduction of a foreign 
species, but a native growth from our own fresh sward. 
Deeply did the eloquent Choate long for the day, when 
American scenery and history would be made classic by 
story and song. Of the realization of this wish, not a few 
have despaired, while some have hoped that the epoch might 
never come. Says Hawthorne, as quoted in the Westmin- 
ster Review, it will be very long, I trust, before romance 
writers may find congenial and easily handled themes, either 
in the annals of our own stalwart Republic, or in character- 
istic and probable events of our individual lives. " Romance 
and poetry, ivy, lichens and wall-flowers need ruin to make 
them grow." Is not the hope of the novelist in a fair way 
to be disappointed, while the aspiration of the advocate is 
likely to be fulfilled ? An English critic has already an- 
swered this question in the aflirmative. Are we not justi- 
fied in the belief, that this answer is the right one? We 
think so ; for we are apprehending, more clearly, the prin- 
ciples of Christian civilization and statesmanship : we are 
promoting the study of theology and philosophy : we are 
rapidly preparing the materials for history, poetry and ro- 
mance, which we believe can grow, not only in the shadow 
of ivied ruins and the gloom of decaying empires, but in 
the sunshine of a prosperous Republic. American Science, 
too, has come to be a great reality ; for the scientific spirit 
has been active in our countrymen, since the days of Frank- 
lin. It has gained a European recognition. Not a few of 
its foremost names are mentioned with honor on the Con- 
tinent. Who can doubt that another influence tending to 
7 



50 

the improvement of our people is found in the facilities for 
intercommunication ? If we had no means of conveyance, 
public and private, other than those possessed by the fathers; 
if the passage from Boston to J^ew York required as much 
time now, as it did a hundred years ago ; if the reports 
from Congress should travel no faster than they did, when 
Washington became the Capitol, would not this state of 
things be a sad disability, depriving most persons of op- 
portunities for personal acquaintance with any section 
beyond their own neighborhood, limiting the diffusion of 
ideas and thus diminishing the popular intelligence ? Is 
there not, also, an educational effect, in the action, in gen- 
eral, of free institutions ? When we remember that Gov- 
ernment springs from, and is responsible to the people ; that 
they are called upon to apprehend principles and to form 
judgments of men and measures ; that the Rulers receive 
and retain their positions only at the popular will ; and that 
the masses exercise the right of elective franchise ; when 
we remember these things, we cannot doubt their educa- 
tional influence. For yet other illustration of our intellec- 
tual progress, could we not refer, with modest pride, to the 
long list of splendid names, adorning the history of the Re- 
public ? They would be connected with Divinity, States- 
manship, Law, Medicine, Education and Science pure and 
applied. 

Furthermore, no account of our national progress would 
be at all complete, which should neglect its moral features. 
No theory of civilization, like that of Buckle and others, ex- 
cluding moral causes, can be considered other than viciously 
erroneous. In the dynamics of social progress, moral influ- 
ences, instead of being effectless, are the most potent of all. 
What was the state and form of these in 1765 ? What have 



51 

they been since? The Colonists were never indifferent to the 
interests of religion ; and, according to their means, had 
made, from the beginning earnest efforts to secure the estab- 
lishment of its institutions ; but, during the war of the 
Revolution, religious influences were greatly interrupted. 
Pulpit services were suspended : church edifices were taken 
for barracks : the army chaplaincies could meet, only in part, 
the spiritual needs of the soldiers : the vices of tbe camp 
abounded ; for war, however holy the cause in which it is 
carried on, is usually attended with more or less of demoral- 
ization. ]^or was this all. English deism and French infi- 
delity were spreading their baleful blight over the country. 
To say nothing of their effect on society in general, there is 
sad evidence, that many of the public men of that day were 
becoming the propagators of scepticism. The names of 
Thomas Paine, Ethan Allen and others will occur to mind. 
A favorable reaction, however, soon commenced. In the 
early revivals under Edwards and Whitefield, religion had 
struck to a profounder depth in the hearts of the people, 
resting not in the mere form, but becoming regenerative and 
experimental. Much seed was then sown, which germin- 
ated in the spring that followed the winter of the Revolution. 
After Independence had been achieved ; after the excite- 
ments of the War had died away ; after the formation of 
the Government had been effected ; and after the period of 
national development had opened, the better influences of 
an earlier day soon re-appeared, and a happier epoch was 
beginning to dawn. What has been the subsequent moral 
and religious history of our people ? The Christian element 
belongs to our institutions, as being inseparably connected 
with them, as being wrought into their ver^^ composition. 
In proof of this, we point to their origin, their theory, 



52 

their design and their name. What has been the working 
of that element ? True, there has been not a little of social 
and political evil : there has been of late a stupendous out- 
break of wickedness : there are amono: us multitudes of 
unevangelized people ; but, in the moral and religious as- 
pects of our country, there has been much to which we can 
look back with pleasure ; much to encourage the faith and 
hope of pious men. Consult the annals of the different 
branches of the Christian Church. Trace the history of 
their growth, their trials, their sacrifices, their efforts for the 
evangelization of society. See them, on a better mutual 
acquaintance, laying aside their bigotries, discussing their 
differences with fraternal courtesy, and striving in love, 
though without the surrender of conscientious principle, for 
the conversion of sinners : see them founding Seminaries for 
the more thorough education of the ministry : see them 
rearing Churches, that the people might have the gospel 
preached to them : see them establish Sabbath Schools, that 
the young might be instructed in the Word of God : see 
them founding Bible and Tract organizations for the diffu- 
sion of religious truth, and employing the means, which the 
inventive genius of piety has devised, for the application of 
the Gospel to the masses : see them instituting the system 
of Missions, to send the knowledge of the way of life to the 
heathen, an enterprise whose lustre sheds a glory over the 
nineteenth century. We ask again, what has been the re- 
sult of the Christian element working in our institutions ? 
The full answer to this question would demand a reference 
to other topics, and especially to those vast combinations of 
our citizens for the promotion of temperance, reform, phi- 
lanthropy and social progress. The century has developed 



53 

in an extraordinary degree, the mechanism, at least, and we 
hope no small amount of the true spirit of moral and re- 
gions culture. 

This sketch of the Nation's jpast progress, though brief, is 
enough to shew the richness of the materials at hand, for the 
purposes of proof and illustration. With greatful pleasure, 
we have pointed out some of its leading aspects. Nor is the 
pleasing emotion felt by us while doing this, if kept within 
proper limits, an illegitimate one ; for it is stimulative to 
high endeavor; but the feeling of gratification must not 
become self-complacency, and the cheer of encouragement 
must not pass over into boastfulness. To impart to us the 
needful knowledge of ourselves, to chasten the spirit of self- 
gratulation, to sober the flush of giddy expectancy, let us, 
while rejoicing over the advancement already gained, re- 
member that there are many deficiencies to be supplied ; 
that there are many evils to be corrected; that the future 
lies before us as a conception and not as a fact ; that the 
realization of the ideal is dependent upon contingencies ; 
and that the progress hoped for can be gained only by the 
formation, in our citizenship, of those great national virtues, 
which give soundness to individual character and solidity 
to the social system. 

n. Let us, then in the second place, turn to the future of 
of our national progress. What, now, are some of those 
indispensable virtues ? Prominent among them, if not fore- 
most is sincerity. Does this seem to be a cheap and unimpor- 
tant virtue ? It is one of the noblest elements of moral 
being. By sincerity, I mean not merely real or unbiassed 
conviction in matters of religious belief; but guiltlessness, 
freedom from hypocrisy, the correspondence of thought with 
expression, the conformity of reality, to appearance. This 



54 

quality is the inmost essence and conditioning principle of 
character. What therefore can exceed it in importance ? 
Nothing ; for, without it, all else is false and valueless. 

IIow is it with respect to this virtue at the present time ? 
Is it found in all the walks of society, at the required de- 
gree ? The question needs no answer. Talleyrand is the 
reputed author of that master maxim of hypocrisy, that lan- 
guage is the means, not of expressing, but of disguising 
one's thoughts. That the unscrupulous diplomatist acted 
boldly and fully on his own principle, there can be no 
doubt; and no student of the revolutionary period of French 
history, can fail to see the evidence that the spirit of the 
minister had penetrated deeply into the character of the 
people. How is it in American Society ? Is speech uni- 
formly used for its legitimate purposes ? No one can be 
uninformed on this point. Bj well phrased apologies gloss- 
ing over some neglect of duty ; by over- wrought recom- 
mendations made in order to sell at the highest prices ; by 
pretended indifference feigned as a means of obtaining com- 
modities at the lowest cost ; by'bland compliments addressed 
to one's face, while behind his back depreciatory criticism 
is not spared ; by the countless forms of verbal artifice, ad- 
justed always to a nice boundary between designed expres- 
sion and intended reticence, is it not sadly evident that our 
English Vernacular is often employed for other purposes 
than the sincere utterance of thought? 

Sincerity is the harmony of being and seeming ; it is 
therefore the foundation of honesty, another of the Puritanic 
virtues.. IIow is it thus ? Through the fact that commer- 
cial integrity is only the adjustment of reality to appearance ; 
is only making an article to be, just what it seems to be. 
There doubtless were dishonest men a hundred years ago. 



55 

for all times have produced them ; but who doubts that 
honesty was a prevailing and (characteristic virtue of the 
Fathers ? None ; for whatever ma}^ be our deficiencies in 
this respect, no one will wish to show himself so lacking 
in honesty, as to deny their chxim to it. I have spoken only 
of the commercial applications of this virtue ; but was this 
the only development of it found in the earlier times? It 
was applied not merely in business, but as well in the social, 
the political, the universal relations of life. It guarded the 
sanctities of home : it presided over the ballot-box : it di- 
rected the course of private and public activity. This great 
excellence, so marked in the fathers and so nobly exhibited 
anew, in the character of our late martyr President, let the 
^Nation seek to copy. 

Another stern, but noble and indispensable virtue is 
justice. Long has she held the emblematic sword and bal- 
ance. Her name and her principles not only had a place in 
Roman Law, but are found in the christian Scriptures. The 
idea of justice is that of rendering whatever is due. Of 
dues, there are two kinds, rights and penalties : the 
former are for the innocent, the latter for the guilty. Law 
and justice were accepted and familiar ideas in the Puritanic 
epoch. What is needed in our times, 'more than anything 
else, is the re-establishment of these ideas, in the public 
mind. Justice, not Policy, should be the national motto. 
Let justice then, be rendered to all classes, in the concession 
of rights. Is it so rendered ? The Government is hesita- 
ting on the extension of suffrage to the only loyal class in 
the South : it is questioning, which motto it had better 
adopt, forgetting that justice is the better policy. Justice is 
not a vengeful passion, but a righteous principle. It is no 
more a passion, when rendering dues in the form of penal- 



56 

ties, than when conceding them in the form of rights. Let 
justice, then, be rendered in the application of penalties. Is 
it so rendered? Kot to the extent, which the safety of 
society requires ; but we hope, that hereafter, tliese dues will 
be more generally and promptly received. Upon all classes of 
felons, let the just penalty of the law be dispassionately, but 
surely inflicted. With respect to the insurgents, whose 
hands are stained with the crime of the foulest and the 
bloodiest rebellion known in history, let our maxim be 
"amnesty for the many, and penalty for the few." With 
respect to the Ringleader and his compeers in crime, does 
any Portia ask, what mercy can you render them ? Justice 
answers in the words of Gratiano, " a halter gratis : nothing 
else." Let treason, the highest crime against society have 
its deserts. We ask not for the bloody code of Draco, in- 
flicting death for the least, and finding no severer punish- 
ment for the greatest crimes ; but we do ask for the unfal- 
tering infliction of penalty proportioned to the turpitude of 
guilt. 

An additional characteristic, the lack of which has been 
so marked in the development of nations and of society in 
general, is huynility. In Staties, this spirit stands opposed to 
national vanity: in society, to aristocratic feeling. The 
student of history is acquainted with no fact more familiar, 
than that of the opposite of humility, appearing in both of 
these forms. He has seen that in nations as well as indi- 
viduals, " pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit 
before a fall." Exulting in their grandeur and glory, and 
lording it over the weak with despotic rule, he has seen the 
proud monarchies of the East disappearing from the cata- 
logue of nations. Following the march of empire, he has 
seen that the ancient nationalities of Egypt, Greece and 



57 

Rome have passed away, as if in retribution for their over- 
weening insolence of pride and power. In the social de- 
velopment of mankind, he has seen, too, the aristocratic 
spirit exemplifying itself, from the earliest dawn of historic 
times, down to the present. lie has seen it in perpetual 
conflict with its natural opposite, the spirit of democracy. 
The American civil War taken with the causes which led to 
it, supplies a chapter, and that the most awful in the history 
of the struggle. Social aristocracy appears in the pride of 
race ; and you have, as one species of it, the phenomenal pre- 
judice against color. It appears as the pride of birth : and 
3"ou recognize it in the boasted claim of descent from old 
families. It appears as the pride of position ; and it looks 
down with supercilious leer upon the common people, whom 
it styles the vulgar masses. It appears as the pride of 
wealth ; and it displays itself in the tawdry trappings of 
"shoddyism." Mankind do not object to aristocracy, for 
there will always be an aristocratic class : its distinction, 
however, must not be found in titled pedigree, in stately 
piles of brick and mortar, in gilded equipages, but in charac- 
ter and culture. This is a true aristocracy consisting of the 
best men ; and, in this country, no other will be able to 
erect itself into an institution, for it is hostile to the genius 
of the government. Here, where there exists no peerage ; 
where there is no fixed entailment of property; where each 
man can choose his own business or profession ; where the 
lists of competition are open to all comers, it behoves the 
purse proud aristocrat to chasten the spirit of class pride ; to 
cultivate humbleness of mind ; and to be kind and aifable 
to all ; for his hostler and boot-black may, hereafter, be 
living at the next doors, in larger houses and with more 
servants than he. 



58 

To this catalogue of fundamental virtues, there must be 
added that of self-control. In all ages, mankind have ac- 
corded to military conquest the honors of greatness ; hut we 
have high authority for the assertion, that self-conquest is a 
still loftier achievement, for "greater is he that ruleth his 
own spirit, than he that taketh a city." The one is a ma- 
terial, the other is a spiritual victory. This warw^ith the spirit 
is one in which there is no escape from the draft; and each 
soldier becomes a conqueror or a captive. By Divine help 
the struggle, though severe, may be won. Conquering 
the higher nature asserts itself in independence of sordid 
desires and fleshly lusts ; but, being conquered, the lower 
nature triumphs, subjecting the man to the sway of passions 
and sensuality. What is the moral issue at present, of this 
militant state of society? Rejoicing to see so many nobly 
win the day, we are agonized, when we behold such numbers 
yielding themselves, the almost unresisting victims, to the 
dominion of vice. What is their condition morally and 
physically? The character once fair is now blasted: the 
countenance once bright is covered with shame-facedness : 
the body once lithesome and magnetic, is flabby and nerve- 
less : the whole man once an object of attraction is bloated 
with intemperance and sodden in debauchery. From this 
class of persons no longer exercising the power of self-control, 
society and the country have little to hope and much to 
fear. 

The virtues already specifled are deeply subjective, con- 
substantial wdth character and essential to it. Others there 
are which are more objective. Of these, one of the most 
important is hidustry. We are told that this is a hard working 
age ; that the people are killing themselves by excess of 
work ; that they must be called upon to desist from such 



59 

exhausting and mortal labor. Is this the correct view ? The 
present is an age of morbid and vehement excitability, 
rather than of healthful and effective action. There is a 
class of persons, it is true, whose constitutions have been 
broken down by real toil ; but subtract the number of those 
who have died by improper diet, by needless exposure, by 
vicious indulgence, by preternatural excitement, by unavoid- 
able disease, and the statistics of mortality w^ould be reduced 
to small figures. With all the ceaseless hum of business; 
with all the noisy bustle of activity ; there are many who are 
trying to live without work. What is the result ? We see 
it in the multitudinous host of office seekers ; in the numbers 
resorting to questionable forms of pursuit ; in the multitude 
seeking unlaborious callings, instead of finding their way to 
the farm and the work-shop. We see it in the preference 
for the avocations relating to the exchange over those rela- 
ting to the production of property. We see it in the unre- 
spectability of labor, an idea not absent from the I^ortli, but 
long prevailing, a blight and a curse, over all the South. 
Society must always depreciate in all its classes, both 
morally and intellectually, so long as an indignity is cast 
upon work. 

Closely linked with industry, is the virtue of economy: 
they must ahvays be associated ; for without the latter, the 
former is profitless. What is economy? It is the judicious 
husbandry of one's means. Kept within proper limits, it is 
a fine virtue ; but carried over to excess, it becomes parsi- 
mony, which is a mean vice. With this understanding of 
the term, look abroad upon society, and what do we behold ? 
We see some who are pushing economy to a vicious excess, 
and in their coffers are hoarded the gains of the niggard and 
the miser. We see happily a large and we hope increasing 



60 

class, who expend judiciously, while they give liberally, re- 
ceiving a prosperous thrift and accumulating wealth for 
their encouragement and reward ; and we trust we shall see 
this class, in enlarging numbers, imitating the example of 
Mr. Peabody, planning comprehensive charities, executing 
their own Wills, thus aiding the progress of the Country and 
blessing the world. What else do we see ? We see not a 
few, who are exhausting their means with lavish profuseness, 
some wasting large patrimonies, thus renderwg themselves 
poor, and others squandering ample earnings, thus keeping 
themselves poor. Found as it is in all classes, extravagance 
is characteristic of the times. If it was confined to the 
wealthy, we should have little to say respecting it ; for, . 
though their expenditures might be foolish, the amplitude 
of their resources would enable them to meet the demands : 
when we see it to such an extent, however, in persons of 
limited means ; when we see them striving in dress, in style 
of living, in exterior show, to imitate the rich ; no sagacious 
mind can fail to perceive that the subject is one of momen- 
tous bearing upon the future progress of the country. Do 
you ask how this is so ? I answer, through its moral effects, 
its reflex influences striking back into the character, and 
affecting it with unsoundness to the very core. The strife 
to keep up unreal appearances begets hypocrisy; and the 
effort to procure means leads to dishonesty. How was it a 
hundred years ago ? How was it for a long period subse- 
quent to that time ? Then different ideas regulated the do- 
mestic economy. A young couple, upon their marriage, 
began the world in a small way. By taking sober views of 
life, and by pursuing a course of action in accordance with 
those views, they gained a competency, establishing pleasant 
mes and rearing respectable families. It was from homes 



61 

such as these, went forth the men, filling offices botli sacred 
and secular, who have done such honor to the country. 
How is it .now? Young peoi3le think they must begin mar- 
ried life, at a point higher than that, at which their parents 
ended it ; in houses more ample, with furniture more expen- 
sive. What is the result? The glitter has no underlying 
solidity : expense increases : debt accumulates : mortgage is 
added to mortgage : business is done on credit : ownership 
becomes supposititious, rather than real. On the shores of 
the Piraeus, there once lived a demented Athenian, whose 
name was Thrasyllus. In his hallucination, he supposed 
that all the vessels in the harbor were his own, entering 
them in his books, giving them bills of lading, and rejoicing 
over their safe return. Is there not many a modern Thrasyl- 
lus, holding property by only a putative proprietorship ? We 
once heard of a pious clergyman, who was wont to sing 
with delight, 

" No foot of land do I possess, 
No cottage in this wilderness, 
A poor wayfaring man." 

Having been presented with a house and lot, it was not long 
before he went to the donors, requesting them to take back 
the property ; and giving, as the reason, that it deprived him 
of the privilege of singing his favorite song. Are there not 
some reputed holders of large amounts of real estate, who 
may sing that song, so far as any embarrassments arising 
from ownership are concerned, with all the freedom they 
can desire ? 

With the economical management of the household, 
stands in close connection the exercise of family control. 
That free institutions must have for their foundation the 
intelligence and virtue of the people, is a received maxim. 
By its educational system, the country has made provision 



62 

for the security of the popular intelligence ; but for the 
popular virtue, it can have no guaranty, so long as the influ- 
ences of home are adverse to it. The foundation of character 
must be laid in childhood and youth. The fathers under- 
stood this principle and based upon it their theory and 
practice of family discipline. Filial obedience, fraternal 
kindness, deferential manners, appropriate speech and 
seemly behavior were enforced by parental authority. Those 
virtues, without which no State has in it any principle of 
life and prosperity, were planted in the family. Age and 
superiority were respected, and respect was expressed by 
word and act. We are no sticklers for the formalities of 
deference : in most things we are opposers of fogyism ; but 
we can hardly help sighing for the good old days, when the 
boys and girls, on their way to school, made their respectful 
obedience to the passing stranger, and in replying to ques- 
tions, were not wont to curtail their answers to the abrupt 
and naked monosyllables "yes" and "no." How is it 
in these times ? Is family government maintained in its 
pristine validity ? The new spirit of the Age considered as 
a progressive tendency towards the ameliorations of society, 
is that which we glory in, and which we would promote ; 
but regarded as the casting away of wholesome forms, as the 
wanton rupture of social restraints, as mere change without 
improvement, it is not to be commended. Progress, which 
leaves behind the disciplinary domestic influences of by-gone 
days, the country must not encourage. A Christian house- 
hold is the seminary of citizenship ; for obedience to parents 
prepares for loyalty to the State. 

The idea of a well-regulated family calls up that of simi- 
lar ones in its vicinity, thus suggesting the virtue of neigli- 
horlincss and the offices of kindness in general. Eomance 



68 

and Poetry have portrayed the loveliness of the cottage homes 
in Scotland, in England, in Switzerland and in other coun- 
tries. They have, indeed, no elaborate architecture, no 
artificial beauty, no shining display; but, though simple 
and unpretentious, they are beautiful, suiTounded by flowers 
and shrubbery, and peeping out from behind jasmine and 
woodbine. These pictures of domestic life, so fully set forth 
in literature, are interesting; but the quiet rural homes of 
IsTew England, too, have always had, for me a touching 
charm. True, the aesthetic eye m4ght have demanded more 
of ornamentation ; but there was in them a pleasing sim- 
plicity : there was irreproachable neatness : there was fire- 
side happiness : there was neio^hborly good-will. As there 
was aftection between the members of the separate fami- 
lies, so there was ordinarily mutual kindness and esteem 
among the collective families of the neighborhood. Kind 
offices were rendered : social aifections were cultivated : sor- 
rows and joys were participated in as common experiences : 
in sickness and trouble, they sympathized with the afliicted ; 
and when death came, removing any of their number, they 
all mourned together, for they had all lost a friend. From 
the Savior's teaching, in the case of the good Samaritan, 
we see how naturally and beautifully, neighborliness widens 
and rounds out into a broad and generous philanthropy. 
Who cannot perceive the moral beauty of such a picture ? 
Who does not wish that its realization may not be lost, but 
perpetuated and reproduced through all the country's future ? 
Let the 'world talk to us of its greater and grander scenes, 
for it has them: let it boast its higher intellectual cul- 
ture,' as truly it may : let it extol its more finished forms of 
society, as it may be permitted to do ; but where, in this 
imperfect sphere, has there been so much of good, with so 



64 

little of evil ? Where has there been a state of society pro- 
ducing happiness so great, without corruption, and develop- 
ing character so high, without ungeniality ? If there has 
been such, we know not where. 

We shouhi never forget, and in times like these, we should 
not omit to mention patrioti»7n, the highest and most essen- 
tial of the civic virtues, for it is the soul of citizenship. 
Deficient patriotism is undeveloped treason. What is pat- 
riotism ? Is it mere partiality for any particular division of 
the earth's surface ? Is it pride with respect to one's own 
country, and insolence with respect to all others ? Is it the 
doctrine of " my country right, or wrong? " It is none of 
these : it is the sacred principle of loyalty to truth and duty 
represented in the Nation's institutions, defined by its laws, 
and protected by its power; a principle surrounding, with 
the hallowed associations of its own sacredness, the land- 
scapes, which make up the country's domain and the flag 
which emblemizes its glory. It is an idea and an affection : 
as the former, it recognizes the great Puritan principle of 
freedom and religion, for which the Country was established 
and of which it is the defender; as the latter, it loves the 
institutions, which characterize it and the men who serve it. 
It seeks not the loaves and fishes of office ; but, with gener- 
ous self-sacrifice, it strives to promote the public good. It 
is not only ready to do and to suffer ; but, with the mj^riads 
of our martyred heroes, it is ready, if called for, to bleed 
and to die. 

These are some of the virtues of the Puritanic character 
not adorning it, as shining jewels hung upon the outward 
form, but entering into its constitution and making a part 
of its compacted substance. Let them become our own. 
If we would avoid an ill-starred future ; if we would proceed 



65 

on the highway of advancing civilization ; then must these 
elemental virtues be taken up^ and, by assimilation, become 
organic parts of our individual, social and national charac- 
ter ; if we would see the Country achieving any true gain 
in the career of national progress ; then must we endeavor, 
in an earnest and profound spirit, to guide our course on 
Christian principles ; to raise these ethical virtues, so that 
they may move upon a Christian plan ; to discard the doc- 
trine of expediencies, compromises and policies ; to Chris- 
tianize the great interests of society, in general, and to act, 
not alone with reference to the material and temporal, but 
with regard to the spiritual and the eternal. 

Finally, what is the outlook for the future of the American 
Republic ? Scarcely had it come into existence, when it 
became the subject of adverse and gloomy vaticination : its 
horoscope was declared to be unpropitious. At home, we have 
had a class of men, who have made it a point to depreciate 
free institutions, by comparing them unfavorably with Euro- 
pean systems, and by asserting their failure. What was the 
consequence of such a course ? Just what might be ex- 
pected : to the extent of their influence, before the civil 
war, they had shaken the faith of the people in the perma- 
nency and adequacy of popular Government. Who are these 
men ? Is it those, whom the Government had, in any way 
oppressed ? Is it those, whose persons and property have 
been unprotected by the laws ? JSTo ! It is generally those 
who have grown rich beneath its fostering care : who have 
had means and leisure to go abroad : who have become 
enamored of British and Continental aristocracies ; and 
who have been dazzled by the stars and garters of nobility. 
We have but little to say to this class of persons ; for it is 
all summed up in this, that if they cannot cease from 
this course, we hope they will go where they can have things. 
9 



66 

more to their wishes, leaving good houses and fine premises 
to better men. I^ot only so, but abroad there has been a 
school of prophets prognosticating evil to the country, and a 
multitude of Gibbons eager to write its decline and fall. 
With a spirit of equal prejudice and baseness, the charge 
has been put forth, that the American Government is a 
failure ; " that a fatal degeneracy is stealing over the Coun- 
try." In one of the most valuable of his speeches, the 
eloquent Everett vindicated the Republic from this vile 
slander, made, in the interest of absolutism, not only by 
the European Press, but in substance, in the E iglish House 
of Lords. When we think of the brief time since the 
establishment of the Government : of the limited resources, 
in the beginning, at the Country's command : of the diffi- 
culties with which she has had to contend, we hesitate not 
to pronounce the American Republic an unexampled suc- 
cess. True, we have had evils in the national system, por- 
tending disaster, and one monster wrong, menacing certain 
destruction. This well-known dano-er was not one of mere 
weakness, threatening the dissolution of the political fabric, 
through the simple lack of cohesion in the materials ; but 
the peril was that of explosion, through the antagonism of 
discordant elements. DeTocqueville could not have had an 
adequate conception of this form of peril, when he said that 
" the 'prosiKrity of the United States is the source of the most 
serious dangers, that threaten them." Doubtless there was 
and is much of peril threatening us from that quarter ; but 
there was another more ominous portent. The darkening 
cloud of Slavery, however, so long castin^ its gloomy 
shadow over the land, is lifted, and its blighting effects are 
passing away. The question, meanwhile, recurs, what are 
the probabilities of the Country's Future ? If the Kation 
follows the crooked counsels of Demagogues, making expe- 



67 

diency her Bible and Mammon her Jehovah, no prophet is 
needed to foretell her doom ; but, if she pursues the course 
marked out by ethical and Christian principles, if she re- 
mains true to herself, to humanity and to God, she needs 
nothing, beyond this, to insure her a glorious future. A 
Government, moreover, may be said to be strong or weak 
in itself and strong or weak in its resources. How is ours 
in the last of these respects ? Go to the history of the four 
years of the Rebellion, and you will be informed on the 
question of resources. How is it in the first regard ? It is 
strong, for it is emphatically a Government of Institutions, 
which cannot be overthrown, except with the breaking up 
of society itself. Says Guizot, '' free institutions are a guar- 
anty, not only for the prudence of Governments ; but also 
for their stability. 'No system can endure otherwise, than 
by institutions." Pure monarchy, instead of being the 
strongest, is the weakest government, for it is one without 
institutions, hung on the brittle thread of the ruler's life. 
Were you asked to point out the grandest and most bril- 
liant monarchy in the history of modern times, where would 
you look for it ? Doubtless to the reign of Louis XIV of 
France. The old institutions had been destroyed and no 
new ones had been created. What was the result ? The His- 
torian of civilization says that " pure monarchy was as much 
worn out in 1712, as the monarch himself." Our Govern- 
ment, as I have said, is institutional ; and this characteristic 
is, in itself, a principle of permanency. Who doubts, now, 
the strength of the Government ? The conviction of its 
power is fix' ^ itself, more and more deeply, upon all minds, 
both loyal and disloyal. N'or is this impression confined to 
our own people ; for a reconstruction of European opinion 
is rapidly taking place. The " obstructive classes " on the 
other side of the ocean, have aided their natural allies on 



they have prophesied ; they have ridiculed aud they have 
reproached; yet what has it all availed ? Is the world any 
longer in doubt, with respect to the result of the great con- 
flict ? IS'ot at all. Though contending with powerful and re- 
morseless foes, the course of the country has been onward. 
The people of other hinds, having looked, with a painful 
mixture of hope and apprehension, for the result of the 
struggle, are now rejoicing over the prospect lying before 
the friends of freedom. " The duel between Aristocracy 
and Democracy, in which there are no seconds, is deter- 
mined in favor of the latter, the watchword being, as has 
been well said, on the one side " Privileges for the few," 
and on the other, " Rights for all." Let us, then, cherish a 
serene faith in the future of the country and the progress of 
humanity ; for despairing of these, we lose faith in God. 
Nor is the brightness of the prospect dimmed at all, by the 
circumstance of our brief stay upon earth. A hundred 
years hence, and we shall have long passed away, we hope 
not without leaving behind some good influences, going on- 
ward to the coming time : but the aflairs of society will 
move on, others will have taken our places. How glorious 
will be to them the retrospective view ! The traveller in Switz- 
erland, having followed down the banks of the Rhone, on 
his way to Mont. Blanc, and having gained the heights 
above Martigny, looks back with rapture upon the ground 
over which he has passed. Like a beautiful picture, the val- 
ley lies spread out at his feet. Thus will it be with those 
who shall come after us. Standing upon the heights of the 
twentieth century, how fine the landscape of history, on 
which they will turn their backward gaze ! How favored 
the eyes beholding the scenes, which will then meet their 
vision ! We are thrilled by their emotion, inspired by their 
spirit and irradiated by their glory. Li the language of 
^ew England's great orator, we address to them our 
heart-felt greeting's. '• Advance, then, ye future gener- 
ations." We hail you across the plain of a hundred years. 
We congratulate you upon the sublime epoch, which j^our 
lives may illustrate. More worthily than we, may you per- 
form your duty and fulfil your destiny. 



p»OE]Sd: 



BY MR. GEORGE G. P H I P P S 



VOICE FROM THE HILL TOP. 



IlTot mine to sing this Century Day, 

Nor other man's, I ween : 
'Tis not for leaves on an oak-tree bough 

To tell what the trunk has seen. 

A voice from Asnebumskit ! * 

Wreathed with the morning's mist, 
A voice from Asnebumskit ! 

Whose mouth the clouds have kissed. 
A voice from that stern old Sentry 

Who has stood the long years by. 
And steadily watched and guarded us 

Witli calm, unfaltering eye, — ; 
And has marked all changes that have come 
Upon this Village that we call '' Home." 

Speak to us Asnebumskit ! 

Come to our feast, we pray, 
And be for us, Grand old Hill,' 

The Poet of the Day. 

And as I shouted to his ear. 

Mid the pine bough locks a-listening 
He heard, and turned — with long, deep gaze, — 

With tears in his dark eye glistening. 
Which told there were thoughts of by-gone days 

Upon his memory stealing, 
And within his heart of rock, a place, 

Wliere yet there were springs of feeling. 



* Name of a hio:h hill in Paxton. 



TO 

And all his love for the little town, 
That thus in his shadow has nestled down, 
And so safely rested a Hundred Years, 
Seemed to rush to his eye and dissolve in tears ! 
But again, of a sudden, his brow was clear 

As when in the night we've seen him, 
Loom up against the pure blue sky, 

Kot the tihn of a cloud between him 
And the stars above ; — then with voice as great 
As the roar of "a tempest, He shook the State. 

" Attention, Massachusetts ! 

From Berkshire to the brine ; 
A Birthday, Massachusetts, 
• To a little child of thine ! 
A century old is Paxton ; 

Come up on her hills, and twine 
A wreath of love about her now, 

A wreath of your oak and pine. 
With a mother's kiss imprint her brow, 

Then list to a word of mine. 

"Brave, Loyal Massachusetts ! 

'Tis praise enough to say 
This Paxton 's been a Child of Thine 

A Hundred Years, to-day ! 
Born on thy cloud-encircled hills, 

N^or cradled gently, there — 
Her lullaby but roaring winds, 

Her food pure mountain air, 
Ko wonder that thus long she lives ; 

For though seem young she may, 
Still must I witness to the truth. 

She's a century old, to-day ! 

" Ah me ! but it seems but yesterday. 

Since the Lidians' plumes went nodding by 

And the wigwam stood on the hillsides bare. 
And the smoke of his camp-fire blurred the sky. 

But yesterday, — since with delight I watched 

The white-man's axe the tall pine boughs lower. 

While along the streams the rude saw-mills sang 
That both Red man and forest's reign was o'er. 



71 

But yesterday, — since to these hills there came, 
Their homes and fortunes to seek or make, 

Strong honest men, thus to plant a town 
"With their plough and anvil, hoe and rake. 

But yesterday, — since to their village strayed 
The famed Saint Crispin, Patron "of leather, 

Who, halting to give the good people advice. 
And smilingly summoning all together, 

Advised them to stick to the last and the awl. 

And peg out their living with right arm and true, 
Then promised whate'er else they might come to want, 

He would furnish them boots, and a plenty to do. 



For the clever old Saint, has himself always thought, 
And declared his belief, that true men are as great 

With a hammer for scepter, a bench for a throne. 
As if ruling an Empire, or guiding a State. 

So in busy obedience have all since then lived, 

Busy as bees when the winter has flown, 
Busy with pegging, or drawing the thread ; 

While busy in playing, their children have grown. 
And busy has happiness been in these homes, 

Here busy contentment and joy have been known. 
Aye ! busy has love been, as elsewhere on earth. 

And busy has death been, — tells many a stone ! 

Ah yes ! full a hundred times indeed, 

Have I watched the snows of the winter, pile 
Down in the streets of this little town. 

As I've stood snow-crowned myself the Avhile ; 
Then seen the Winter give way to Spring, 

Then the Summer roses in turn come on. 
Then the deep dyed leaves of the Autumn fall. 

Yes, — truth ! full a hundred years have gone ! 

Paxton, Dear Paxton ! " left out in the cold." 

High up on your hillsides, ne'er sought for their gold, 

But healthy and happy and not to be sold ; 

Aye, rugged in heart as the rocks in your mould, 

Paxton, rejoice ! you're a hundred years old ! 



72 

But Paxton, dear Paxton ! I fold to my heart 

The thought that though small, you have well borne 

your part 
In all that your country has needed or asked, 
E'en to answer her bugles, your steps were not last, 
So Paxton, dear Paxton ! your honor is fast ! 

Then Paxton, dear Paxton ! While onward you press. 
In my heart I'll not find it to love you the less. 
Though you may be but humble : — your name is enrolled 
Mid the long list of towns, that the Union uphold. 
So Paxton I'm proud, you're a hundred years old ! 

And Paxton, dear Paxton ! thus stand to the last. 
Ever firm at the post where your lot has been cast. 
And let each year that crowns you, but add to the weight 
Of your sterling heart virtues, and eouarge so great. 
And through centuries coming, still honor your state. 

So Paxton, dear Paxton ! I bid you adieu. 

Peace, joy and prosperity rest upon you ! 

Still above you I'll watch, as through years that have 

fled; 
Yes ! on oath will I guard you, by the Blue White and 

Eed. 
Till the bow of two centuries bends o'er your head ! 

Thus the stern old Sentry ended. 

And though long I stood and hearkened 
Not a word more condescended 

And the clouds his face soon darkened ; 
But you see his post is taken. 

And his face like flint is set, 
So he's bound to watch above us 

One more hundred years as yet ! 

And may Paxton be forever. 

Or while foot shall press her sod, 
True to law and liberty. 

True to Country and to God, 
As the rocks stand firm beneath her. 

As his post this one will fill, 
Who on oath now stands to guard her. 

Grand old Asnehinnsldt Hill ! 



SENTIMENTS. 



PREPARED AND ARRANGED BY 

ME. GEOEGE G. PHIPPS. 



No. 1. The Day we Celebrate: — 

Our little Paxton, this day closes its First Century of Life ; 
but in it commences, also, its Second Century. May its march 
be thus ever onward, its humble place in the ranks of the Old Bay 
State never deserted ; its marching music ever thus the Voice of 
the Centuries. 

Eesponse by Hon. G, W. Livermore, Historian of the Day. 

2. Paxton, the Rome of our early Bays : — 

May its remembrance be as dear to those who shall come after 
us, as it has been to ourselves. 

Eesponse by Eev. William Phipps. 

3. The Natives of Paxton : — 

Though so unfortunate as to have been allowed no Choice, as to 
Birthplace, yet will Paxton never be sorry that their parents 
chose for them, and chose so loisely. 

Eesponse by Eev. J. F. Bigelow. 

Eeading of the Poem : [A Voice from Asnebumskit.'] 

4. The Paxton Glee Club : — 

Blending with echoes they can awaken from the past long cen- 
tury, let them also send down the ringing song to the Hundred 
Years that are coming. 

Singing by Glee Club of " A Hundred Years Ago," and ^' A 
Hundred Years to Come." 

10 



74 

5. The Town of Leicester : — 

Though she could aiford to give up her rights to our lands ; not 
yet can she to our waters : yet, on the bosom of the streams that 
rising among our hills, go forth to carr^^ on her manufactures, 
would we ever float down to her kindest wishes of Peace and 
Prosperity. 

Response by Jos. A. Denny, Esq., of Leicester. 

6. Our Common Schools : — 

And Little Paxton, it seems, must needs send out its own edu- 
cated sons, to teach New England's other sons and daughters how 
to become True Scholars like unto themselves. 

Response by Increase S. Smith, Esq., Teacher in Dorchester, 
Massachusetts. 

7. Mrth Brookfield :— 

Though so powerful be the fascination of her eye, that she has 
drawn away more than one of Paxton's children from her, we 
can yet but rejoice in her taking such good care of them; and 
allowing them, at least occasionally, to come home to visit. 

Response by T. M. Duncan, North Brookfield, 

8. Jjeicester and Mutland : — 

Though Paxton was originally "set off" from these towns, not 
yet is she in the least " set off" from their neighborly good-will 
and affection. May the Band of Music the one sends us to-day, 
to aid in our festal joys, be an emblem of that Band of Sympathy 
whose music of mutual trust shall ever unite these respective 
towns. 

Response by " Leicester Band," Capt. J. Coggwell leader. 

9. Our Fathers and Mothers : — 

Sowers of good seed by the fireside, they have thereby given 
sons and daughters to their Country and to God : — may their dear 
Memory and Love be ever green as the pines upon our hill tops. 

Response by A. E. Bigelow, Esq., of Clinton, Mass. 

10. Worcester — " the City down below " us : — 

Commerce with her is certainly brisk, if not so very advanta- 
geous to Paxton : we receive her goods, but pay in jeioels — even 
our sons. 

Response by Loammi Harrington, Esq., of Worcester. 

11. Illinois. 

Though many birds reared mid the wind-rocked boughs of Pax- 
ton have since built nests of their own in the distant forests of 



75 

the West, we rejoice that at least, once in a hundred years, their 
voices can be heard again in the Old Home Tree. 

Response by liev. E Gerry Howe, of Waukegan, Illinois. 

12. The Natural Productions of Paxton : — 

Limited though they may be, yet Spencer alone can testify that 
we have at least raised, now and then, a few good wives. 

Call for response from either of the "four Prouty/* brothers, 
who have all taken wives from Paxton. 

13. Massachusetts: — 

Proud of her noble honor, trustful in her love, and nestled 
closely, as we are, to the very Heai't of this dc;ir Mother, (viz, 
Worcester) there is little danger of Paxton's ever seceding. 

llespouse by David Manning, Esq., Worcester. 

14. Our .Returned Volunteers: — 

May the thought of those Victories they have helped to secure, 
and the sight of the Old Flag they have so nobly defended, mingle 
with the grateful thanks of a saved country in being ever to them 
the richest of rewards — the most satisfactory of annuities. 

Eesponse by Capt. Verannus Parkhurst, of Templeton. 

[Glee Club sing " Jefferson D."] 

15. The Union of the States : — 

Paxton has always been interested in it; has done its full 
share with sword and rifle, taxes and men, to maintain it; upon it 
then docs she also trust, and with hope and confidence look for- 
ward to another Century, of prosperity and happiness. 

16. Those " to the Manor born : — 

Wherever in the " wide, wide world " they pitch their tents, 
still may they ever be in heart — not far from HomCr 

Eesponse by Solon C. Howe, Esq., Holden. 

17. The Church and Sabbath School : — 

The Safe guard of the Present and Future, as they have been 
of the Past : may the sacred care and love of coming generations 
ever protect and sustain their interests. 

Eesponse by Eev. Moses G. Grosvenor, Clarendon, Yt. 

18. Our Fallen Brave : — 

Among the thousands that have died for country in the past 
four years, wherever may rest our own martyred soldiers, — peace to 
their hallowed dust! Still living in our hearts and memories for 



76 

the deeds that led them unto death — with pride mingling with 
our tears will we never cease to twine wreaths to their honor. 

19. Worcester Boys : — 

As so many of them have courageously scaled our heights 
to-day, we will dare them to withdraw their charged batteries 
without firing a gun or two more; if for no other reason, at least 
to hear them speak, on these echoing hill-tops. 

Eesponse by K. A. Hawes, Esq , of Worcester. 

20. The Ladies of Faxton : — 

Blossoms of our Century Plants : may the fragrance of their 
memory be dispensed through all the century to come, 

21. The Boot-ynakers of Faxton : — 

May their industry " stick to the last,'' and luax greater and 
greater even to the ends of their thread of life ; may their zeal in 
enterprise never flinch a peg, nor their " understandings " ever 
grow shaky : while upon the altar of country may they still ever 
be ready to lay down their " little all " with unshackled arms and 
whole-souled (soled) effort to hammer out no boot-less blows for 
Home and Liberty. 

22. Our Committee of Arrangements : — 

Our thanks and compliments shall all be included in one far- 
sweeping wish : — when the next Centennial comes round, may this 
same Committee be as fully '' Alive " to duty as they have been to- 
day 

Eesponse by Wm. Mulligan, Esq., Paxton. 

(final toast.) 

23. The Two Hundreth Anniversary of the Town of Faxton, 

Let those here who may survive to see it, if one there be, — not 
then forget to call forth from their long, long memory this charge : 
bear down our salutations and good wishes to the joyfid 19G5. 

Eesponse by Band, and united singing of '' Auld Lang Syne." 

Thus closed the delightful Celebration of the First Centennial 
of the Town of Faxton, leaving the most pleasant impressions upon 
all who assembled to enjoy its varied exercises. 



77 



MILITARY ROLL OF HONOR, 



The celebration of the Paxton Centennial occurred during the 
war of the rebellion; but as this memorial is printed after the 
close of the war, it has been deemed not inappropriate to add the 
names of the soldiers who enlisted in the defence of their country 
from this town. 

The following is believed to be as accurate and com])Iete a list 
as can now be obtained : 



brought 



Henry A. Allen, served two 
enlistment, nine months and 
one year. 

Simon C. Abbott, 

Henry G. Bigelow, wounded at 
Antietam. 

George li. Browning, re-enlist- 
ed. 

Henry A. Browning, wounded 
at Coal Harbor, and died on 
the wa}^ to Washington, June 
16th. 18 64. Was " 
home. 

Charles Butler. 

Charles G. Bigelow, served 
two enlistments, nine months 
and one year. 

William F. Browning, served 
two enlistments ; nine months 
and one year. 

Isaac J. Bowen. 

Henry A. W. Blackburn, 

Geo. p. Browning. 

Herbert Cheeney, 

Daniel Cummings, died April 
2Sth. 1862. 

John A. Cummings. 

Everett W. Con ant. 

Wallace S, Chase. 

Otis JDamon, — re enlisted. 

George W. Dodd. 

Alanson H. Dodge. 

Ambrose Eames. 

Charles O. Goodnow. 

Alvin S. Graton. 

James Holmes. 



Michael Iverrivan. 

Sylvkster Laribek. 

iJ^ATHAN A. MuNROE, died at 
Murfresboro, Teiin. Aug. 8th. 
1862. 

Solomon E. Maynard, died at 
Newport News, March 2d. 
1863. 

Edward E Munroe, died a pris- 
oner in the hands of the 
rebels. 

Frank W Mulligan. 

John S. Mills, died at Washing- 
ton, April I5th. 1865, 

Alvin S. Nichols, died at Crab 
Orchard, Tenn. 

Samuel A Newton. 

Nahum Newton. 

Erastus W. Newton. 

Charles H. Newton. 

Cyprus Osland, died May 4th. 
1862. 

David W. Pratt, captured at 
Plymouth, N. C. and died in 
Andersonville prison in 1864. 

John S. Pratt, captured at Ply- 
mouth, N. C. and died at Ander- 
sonville prison in 1864. 

Edward F. Pratt. 

Albert Pratt. 

George 0. Peirce, died at Har- 
rison Landing, Va. July 1862. 
Was brought home. 

John D. Pierce, shot in front of 
Petersburg, July 19th. 1864, 
was brouiilit home. 



78 



Wm. F. Pike. 

Hiram N. Parkhurst, died at 
Newbern, N. C. Sept. — 1864. 
was brought home. 

Charles H. Parker. 

Walter Shaw, died at Washing- 
ton, Aug. — 1862: brought 
home. 

Isaac R. Savage. 

John W. Smith. 

Wm. M. Warren. 

Henry C. Ward. 

William Ware. 



HoLLis H. Howe, died at York- 
town, Va. June — 1862. 

Charles A. Harrington, died 
at Annapolis, Md. Jan. 8th 
1862, and was brought home. 

Ward Harris. 

Samuel Harrington. 

George M. Harris. 

John Holmes, Jr. 

George R. Hubbard, shot dead 
in the trenches in front of Pe- 
tersburg. 

William E. Keep, served two 
enlistments, nine months and 
one year. 

Of the fifty-nine, whose names are here given, four served two 
enlistments, of nine months and one year, and counted a second 
time on the quota. Four '^ three years men," re enlisted, and 
were counted again on the quota. Of the twelve men who were 
drafted, two responded in person and entered the service, viz : 
John K. Davis, and William Gibson. One furnished a substitute, 
and one paid commutation. Two men were credited to this town 
on other enlistments. John C Bigelow, placed a representative 
in the service (Henry Evans,) thus making in all seventy-four 
men furnished directly by the town of Paxton. 

In addition to these the following persons, citizens of Paxton, 
enlisted elsewhere. 



James D. Butler, died June — 

1865, 
Edward J). Bigelow. 
Benj. F. Ware. 
Charles A. Bemis. 



Charles"E. Graton. 
George F. Cheeney. 
Samuel Stratton, died Sept. 

6th. 1864 : was brought home. 
George W. Brown, died in 

1864. 

Of the number of those who entered the service for the town of 
Paxton, fifteen died while thus engaged: — two who were dis- 
charged for disability, died very soon after, viz. Daniel Cum- 
mings and Cyprus Osland. Of those who enlisted elsewhere, 
ihveb died while in the service. 

Thus it will be seen that twenty in all, citizens of Paxton, who 
served in the war died. All the rest as far as known at this time, 
are still living. 

A record worthy to be preserved, for at least, a century to come. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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